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Recommended Reading List for Wannabe Elders
One of our readers asked me for a list of books that I might recommend for men thinking about entering the ministry so I've included a very tentative and quickly put together list below. There are a few caveats however:
1) I can't include every book I'd have potential ministers read and there are some books here that won't make it for one reason or another. What someone needs to read also may depend on where they are at as an individual. However, what you see below would be a good start. I'd also love to hear suggestions from others in the comment thread. You're going to find that there's a lot of history present in the following list and the reason for that should be somewhat obvious. If it's not obvious to you–please don't think about entering the ministry until you've spent a few years coming up with the right answer on that one as to why.
2) A few books can't really be classified as something to go out and buy. Take the hymnal being used by your church and learn as many of the hymns in it you can. If your church has a psalter, even better, go and learn them as well. If your church doesn't have a hymnal and you sing choruses through powerpoint, go find a new church–one that has proper respect for the music of the Church over the ages and don't waste your time.
3) In reading your Bible, use the morning/evening schedule in the Book of Common Prayer and read through the entire 150 Psalms once a month every month. Learn to sing the Psalms and sing them regularly. Become fanatical about it but don't go around pressing it on every congregant you find. Keep it to yourself until you're actually called to be a minister or elder somewhere.
4) The Book of Common Prayer deserves special mention. I like the Book of Common Prayer from the Reformed Episcopal Church because it echoes the 1662 Prayer Book. You don't have to be Anglican to appreciate it. You can find it as a pdf here (warning, a bit of a download). Morning and Evening Prayer in the Prayer Book should be reviewed and possibly adopted if you're not doing anything else and the Psalter is divided up to read morning/evening in a month. A good start for those working right now merely on good intentions.
5) Also, reading through the books below takes some amount of time and discernment. Don't just believe everything that comes across your eyes. Not everything in the books below should be taken as the gospel truth but when you recognize the gospel truth–put it in place in your life!
Lloyd-Jones, D. Martin. Preaching and Preachers -This is the best book on preaching on the planet. Outdoes them all. Read it once, twice, a hundred times.
Spurgeon, Charles. Lectures to My Students - Another classic "common sense" read for men going into the ministry by one of the great masters.
Stott, John R.W. Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the 20th Century - I was recently exposed to this work when I took a class on homiletics and was very impressed. Most all of what Stott has written is important for anyone to read and this volume is no exception.
Barth, Karl. Homiletics - This will revolutionize your thinking about preaching and teach you to focus on Christ.
Pilhofer, Michael. Music Theory for Dummies - Let's face it. If you're going into the ministry you likely know nothing about music. Learn it. Live it. Love it. It's indispensable in the ministry and getting good at music will help you in understanding the Bible and getting to know God.
Henry, Matthew. A Method for Prayer - There is more to prayer than saying grace at meals. This book will help you develop methods for prayer that rely heavily on the biblical text.
Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of God - This book shows you how to see and recognize the divine in everyday life.
A. Kempis, Thomas. The Imitation of Christ - Another excellent classic.
Schaff, Philip, ed. The Early Church Fathers, 38 volumes - Yeah, 38 volumes. Take the hit, buy them at the link provided (since it is the cheapest I know about), and just read them. Don't read them like you have to understand everything they write about - just read them. Some you will appreciate more than others, some will blow your mind, and some you will wonder what planet were these men on. But actually reading them is important and will place you leagues ahead of others who won't do this spade work. What a heritage we have!
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion -The systematic foundation for the Reformation.
Turretin, Francis. Institutes of Elenctic Theology -Turretin was Calvin's successor and his own Institutes is well worth adding to your understanding of Reformation doctrine. More exhaustive and complete than Calvin's, this set really sheds light on Reformed theology and practice.
Bierma, Lyle. An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism: Sources, History, and Theology (Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought) -The Heidelberg Catechism is perhaps the warmest and most pastoral of the major extant Reformed confessions available to us and this historical introduction sets the stage for you to study it and learn to love it.
Ursinus, Zacharias. Commentary of Dr. Zacharias Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism - A classic commentary on perhaps the greatest confessional document of the Reformation.
Barth, Karl. The Theology of the Reformed Confessions - This book will outline for you the fact that the Reformational confessions were not mere documents and descriptions to subscribe to but that they stand as professions of a vibrant faith that the Reformers had - a needed complement to anyone who really wants to understand the purpose and nature of the Reformed confessions as they were actually produced hundreds of years ago.
Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics (Volumes I, II, III, IV [forthcoming]) - These volumes will help insulate you from people who claim there is only one stream of Reformed tradition worth your time.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity, Volume 1: Beginnings to 1500 - An excellent and fairly up-to-date modern survey of Christendom.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity, Volume 2: Reformation to the Present - The successor volume to the first.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition, A History of the Development of Doctrine (Volumes I, II, III, IV, V) - This amazing set of books traces the doctrinal history of the Christian church and its careful outline will immunize you against those who read history less carefully and use their understanding of history as propaganda for their particular understanding of what the Church should or should not be.
Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church, 8 volumes - A bit dated, but an excellent gloss of the history of the Christian Church.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. Credo: Historical and Theological Guide to Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition - An excellent introduction to the creeds of the Christian Church.
Bahnsen, Greg. Covenant Theology, audio series - If you read or hear nothing else from Greg Bahnsen, this concise overview of covenant theology outlines the Reformed understanding of God's plan for salvation. I'd also suggest his book on theonomy and his work in apologetics, but this is an introductory list. We can do advanced topics next time!
____________. BibleWorks 7 - BibleWorks is a huge timesaver in studying the Bible - but use it with care. Don't go too crazy in thinking you've understood a text because you've looked up how one word in a passage is used two hundred times via computer search. The value of BibleWorks is in the amount of information you can present on one screen and in an automated fashion instead of having twenty books open on your desk. Logos Bible Software is an alternative but my exposure to it is very limited. BW allows you to get well into the original language study required for getting deep into the biblical text and I highly recommend its use.
Congar, Yves Cardinal. The Mystery of the Church - Cardinal Congar's work on the mystery of the Church is outstanding and a helpful guide in viewing the Church and her work.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. Obedient Rebels: Catholic Substance and Protestant Principle in Luther's Reformation - This is a helpful work in understanding the nature and substance of the Reformation–what was it really originally all about?
Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics) - Wow. Well, there are several reasons why I would include this book in a stack of others for Elder Wannabe's. The first and foremost reason is that men who assume a mantle of ministerial authority need to understand that they can influence and manipulate people for all the wrong reasons and that the men who committed their crimes in the Nazi era were often men who were as normal and unintentional as the next guy. Your processes and your work as a minister should never work against valid ministry but if you're not careful you can find yourself on the wrong side of true Spirit-filled ministry even though you're quite certain what you're doing is the right thing.
Filed under: Generally Speaking, Philosophy, Theology, and Faith, Prayer and Reflection
by Kevin D. Johnson |
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