Recommended Reading for First (and 60th) Year Pastors
by Eric Schumacher, BCI Pastoral Ministry Director
Recently, a brother asked my recommendation on what to read in his first year as a pastor. I thought it was a great question. So, I extended the question to some BCI pastors — ”What book would you recommend a pastor read in his first year of pastoring?” Here are their replies:
Cody Cline, Elder & Staff Director at Candeo Church, Cedar Falls, recommended Lead: 12 Gospel Principles for Leadership in the Church by Paul Tripp. “This is fundamental stuff. Tripp shows us how to keep hold of Jesus while leading and persisting in pastoral ministry for years.”
Mark Vance, Lead Pastor at Cornerstone Church of Ames, recommended The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus by Zack Eswine “The great temptation in pastoral ministry to lead beyond the God-given limits of your human capabilities. Eswine does an incredible job highlighting the limits we all have and how to do pastoral ministry within those boundaries.
Mark also recommended Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation by Collin Hansen, noting, “Tim Keller is without doubt one of the most influential evangelical leaders of our generation. Collin Hansen’s new biographical sketch offers a unique look into the life and ministry of Tim Keller. I was encouraged by not only the profound gifts of grace God gave Keller but also by the profound limits and humanity seen in his ministry.”
Tim Trudeau, Senior Pastor at Grace Community Church, Boone recommended The Contemplative Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction by Eugene Peterson. “There will be many expectations placed upon you as a pastor. How do you know which voices to listen to? Peterson, using an illustration from Homer’s Odyssey, challenges us to tune out the ‘siren voices,’ and lash ourselves fast to the ministry of Word and prayer. This book has had a profound impact on my philosophy of ministry.”
Todd Stiles, Lead Pastor at First Family Church, Ankeny, recommended Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald. “Actually, this book was literally the first book I read when I entered youth ministry in 1987. Its focus on the inner man, personal discipline, and the need to be privately structured and ordered in a way that prevents hypocrisy and duplicity turned me inside out. It was fantastic and appropriately used by God to help me see what would really matter in the long run: inner consistency and integrity. Without that, we would ultimately be exposed as a pastoral fraud. It gave me a necessary distaste for personal collapse and ruin, and I thank God for Gordon MacDonald’s insight, courage, and practical wisdom about the nature of genuine ministry and how it works over the long haul.”
Todd also recommended The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Reflections on Life and Ministry by John Piper and D. A. Carson. “Those who love to preach always battle balancing giving too much and/or giving too little. Most preachers love to swim in deep waters, yet most congregants then feel like they’re about to drown. This book really helped me strike a balance between the two so that both parties felt they were growing and learning and not choking or starving. Short book but I thought it was very practical and met me right where I was.”
Rob Willey, Senior Pastor at Coram Deo Bible Church, Davenport, recommended Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry by John Piper. “It’s a great distillation of lessons learned in pastoral ministry. His chapter on ecstatic letdown was a lifesaver.”
Rob also recommended Lectures To My Students by Charles Spurgeon. “Written by one of the greatest preachers and leaders of all time. Invaluable wisdom for ministry and especially pastors.”
Cory Gonyo, Preaching Elder at First Baptist Church, Bettendorf, recommended Believer’s Baptism: Sign of the New Covenant in Christ, edited by Thomas R. Schreiner and Shawn D. Wright. “Having been in ministry over 30 years now, this is one of those books that I wish someone could have given me at the very beginning. Serving churches in the north/midwest, there are so many around us who practice different forms of infant baptism for different reasons, but we believe that only born-again believers should be baptized and members of our churches. This book explains all the issues and affirms the biblical view of believer’s baptism.”
Cory also recommended Shepherding God’s Flock: Biblical Leadership in the New Testament and Beyond, edited by Benjamin L. Merkle and Thomas R. Schreiner. “I would have loved to have had at the beginning of my ministry. Too many people and churches do not understand and embrace God’s design for His church in terms of His Lordship, pastors/elders, deacons, and congregational authority. This book supplies the biblical foundation and helpful insights for ordering our churches to be as the Lord designed. I believe if we obey God’s will and ways in Scripture, He will bless us to be fruitful.”
Gene Stockton, Lead Pastor at Heartland Church, Sioux City, recommended Spiritual Leadership: Moving People on to God’s Agenda by Richard Blackaby and Henry Blackaby. “The thesis of this book is spiritual leaders helping move people from where they are to where God wants them to be. The common thread in the book is that true leadership originates from God, points people towards God, and reflects the heart and action of God.”
Michael Felkins, Lead Pastor at Grand Avenue Baptist Church, Ames, recommended When People Are Big, and God is Small by Ed Welch. “I hardly know anyone who doesn’t struggle with the false gods of affirmation, approval, and acceptance. They are idols of the heart who wear the faces of people and performance. When these false gods become big, the True God becomes small. For pastors, these gods are ruthless taskmasters who masquerade as Christian virtues. More than anything, pastors need to learn to rest in the approval given to us through the person and work of Jesus on the cross.”
Michael also suggested The Good Gift of Weakness, God’s Strength Made Perfect in the Story of Redemption by Eric Schumacher. “An exhaustive survey of the story of redemption that reminds us that not only is it good to be weak, but God expects us to be weak, and He loves it. As a pastor, it was a breath of fresh air to be reminded through redemption’s story of how God has made himself strong through the weakness in his people. It gave me comfort and confidence in Christ in my weakness.”
