We know that, as Christians, we are part of a body. We interact with each other, worship with each other, and learn from each other. Many times that isn’t as ready as it sounds. We may find that we have to learn new tools—how to interact with someone from a different culture or ethnicity and listen to someone’s story—before we can relate well to each other. Since we can’t separate helping others from relating to each other—if we don’t love the least of these well, we can’t love our fellow Christians well—we also have to learn about our culture.
These books discuss many aspects of the Christian life, from cultivating healthy families to creating new life by healing societal ills. Each helps readers understand how to be more mature Christians and practice their faith in wise ways.
Becoming a parent isn’t easy for anyone. Some people find that their children have challenges they didn’t expect. Others experience crises that radically redefine how they parent. These books are for parents of many kinds, showing them how to
1. The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian. Omartian explains the importance of prayer, what parents gain by actively praying for their children’s wellbeing, and crucial things to pray for.
2. The Single Dad Detour by Tez Brooks. Brooks had no idea what to do when his marriage ended. He describes the hard-won lessons he gained about mourning the past and building a healthy new life as a single father.
3. The Storm-Tossed Family by Russell Moore. Moore helps parents (and those with no children) see that the church is their family. Hence, everyone must consider how they interact with their broader Christian family… and how the gospel frees them to be the family God has called them to be.
4. Faith that Lasts by Cameron McAllister and Stuart McAllister. A father-and-son team, these writers describe their unique story: a missionary family who moved to America and discovered new spiritual challenges, and the son returning to faith after a rebellious period. Their insights into passing faith onto the next generation are honest, sometimes surprising, and always well done.
5. When Parenting Isn’t Perfect by Jim Daly. Daly helps parents see that the Bible’s message of grace frees them from perfectionism. Parents will never be perfect, and God doesn’t ask them to be—he asks them to try again.
Further Reading: As a Christian Parent, What Should I Look for in a School?
Sermons can teach people much about the Bible, but so much religious learning only comes through some form of mentoring. These authors discuss spiritual mentoring (one-on-one or as part of a small group) and what it provides.
1. Searching for Grace by Scotty Smith and Russ Masterson. Smith uses his story of experiencing ministry burnout to advise Masterson about what values prepare pastors for continued spiritual growth.
2. Lifelong Leadership by MaryKate Morse. Morse shows how a mentoring community model—people learning about leadership in small groups—can give developing Christian leaders a wide range of feedback and skills, preparing them for healthy lives and careers.
3. Letters to a Young Pastor by Eric E. Peterson and Eugene H. Peterson. Eugene Peterson gives a bracingly honest look at his pastoral career—the struggles, the joys, the things he wishes he had done better—in these letters to his son, a young pastor seeking advice. His advice is excellent material for pastors or anyone seeking a deeper spiritual life.
4. The Lost Art of Disciple Making by LeRoy Eims. Eims considers how the Great Commission means what it says: making disciples. He outlines how Christians can make disciples—what young believers need, why the work is often more complicated than it looks—and shows what Christians gain as discipleship breeds maturity.
5. Disciple Making in a Culture of Power, Comfort, and Fear by Matthew Dickerson. Dickerson argues that while society seems less stable than ever, discipleship is still the key to spiritual growth. He shares stories about discipleship and the tools disciple-makers need for navigating contemporary issues.
Further Reading: 5 Proven Steps to Discipling Others
These authors look at a wide range of topical discussions, from abortion to homelessness, from refugees to conversing with angry churchgoers.
1. Once We Were Strangers by Shawn Smucker. Smucker tells the story of befriending a Syrian refugee and what he learned about loving his neighbor, even when it involves reaching across cultural and religious divides to embrace someone that many Christians automatically dismiss.
2. A House Built on Love by Ed Walker with Elizabeth Batha. When Walker left his career providing aid in Darfur, he didn’t expect his next mission to be providing aid in his home country. To his surprise, the homeless charity Hope in Action expanded and has grown to one of the highest respected homeless aid projects in the United Kindom. He details the values that define his work and how he’s navigating the challenges of homeless ministry.
3. Kinda Like Grace by Ginger Sprouse. When Sprouse met a bighearted homeless man near her house and bought him something to eat, she didn’t know they would meet again. She explains how she came to know Victor—his pain over losing his mother, his disabilities, his unapologetic joy for life—pushed her to see beyond clichés, to see a human being who needed help.
4. Christians in the Age of Outrage by Ed Stetzer. Stetzer looks at American culture’s struggle with anger—why we find it increasingly hard to agree with each other and what that means for Christians. Stetzer considers how Christians can recover their attitude of loving others without being naïve about the difficulty of doing so.
5. An Unexpected Choice by Patti S. Giebink. Giebink explores her surprising journey from being a Planned Parenthood employee who performed numerous abortions to becoming a Christian and a pro-life advocate. Her story combines discussions about reproductive technology (whether abortion is necessary today) with a description of how her beliefs shifted.
Further Reading: Five Pro-Life Books Every Christian Should Be Reading Now
Whether people have a diagnosed anxiety disorder or something more general, anxiety is one of the widest-spreading maladies in Western society. These authors consider the many faces of anxiety, its root causes, and finding new mental health.
1. Deep Peace by Todd Hunter. Hunter looks broadly at anxiety—why so many of us are anxious today and why we feel too afraid to trust others. He then considers the perfect peace that Jesus speaks about, how to practice that peace within, and how to practice it with others.
2. Holy Vulnerability by Kellye Fabian. Fabian shows readers how spiritual practices—prayer, taking time to experience creation, and community time with other Christians—don’t just make people feel better. These spiritual practices can also help anxious people see how God is present in the small and big things, and he will provide what they need.
3. Following Jesus by Henri Nouwen. Written during a crisis, Nouwen exhorts readers to realize that their ultimate stability comes from one thing: Jesus. He unpacks six of Jesus’ key statements—like “come and follow men” and “I will be with you always.” As he unpacks each one, he shows how following Jesus means not just following his teachings but living in him, where we find the safety and stability we need to navigate an anxious world.
4. Evangelical Anxiety by Charles Marsh. Raised in a strict Christian home in the 1960s in a southern town he later learned was a Klux Klux Klan hotspot, Marsh experienced more than the usual childhood trauma. He details his slow journey into adulthood to figure out his trauma and realize how the white evangelical sub-culture he grew up in made it difficult to be healthy or find mental health tools. A bittersweet, vivid memoir about one man’s journey with anxiety.
5. On Getting Out of Bed by Alan Noble. Noble speaks to readers who struggle with anxiety and other mental health issues, urging them to consider what motivates them to live healthy lives. He argues that a sense of duty to live well—to find mental health tools, to be good parents and spouses, to pursue one’s calling—is key, and that sense only comes from understanding that God created us individually.
Further Reading: What Does the Bible Say about Anxiety?
America’s history with race—from the years of legal slavery to contemporary racial violence—is thorny but can’t be ignored. These authors consider what the church often misses in discussions about race and how to chart a better future.
1. Faithful Antiracism by Chad Brennan and Christina Edmondson. Brennan and Edmondson use new research about racism in America to argue that Christians need to not just talk about racism but pursue proactive solutions that fight racism on the local and national levels.
2. Intensional by D.A. Horton. Horton shows that the problem with too many discussions about racism is not merely that people need reconciliation: reconciliation implies that America has a healthy past whose values it can find again. He considers how American Christians can finally build an anti-racist vision they can practice, founded on values like celebrating ethnicity while standing against discrimination.
3. Talking About Race by Isaac Adams. Adams imagines several people at the same church who each perceive a recent news discussion about racism differently. In alternating chapters, he discusses these characters’ reactions, then analyzes what they are each missing and how to create a healthier dialogue.
4. Consumed by Hate, Redeemed by Love by Thomas A. Tarrants. Tarrants has one of the most dramatic stories about overcoming racism—in his twenties, he took part in a Klu Klux Klan operation that planned to bomb a Jewish man’s home. Tarrants details the factors that led him down such a dark path, his discovery that Christianity led to a very different view of race than he had, and his healing journey.
5. The Beautiful Community by Irwin L. Ince, Jr. Ince challenges readers to see that the solution to racism is recognizing the kingdom of God has certain traits. Among other things, the kingdom of God embraces differences because it has God at its head, and God says that people of all races and ethnicities have value.
Further Reading: How Should Christians Respond to Racism?
As Christians become more aware of the disability community, spiritual discussions have taken some important new turns. These authors include people with disabilities, people with disabled family members, and abled people seeking to be better brothers and sisters to the disability community.
1. We’re Stronger Than We Look by Jill Case Brown. Brown details her experience becoming a caregiver after an accident placed her husband in a wheelchair. Her discussion covers the spiritual challenges when life takes a surprising turn, the practical challenges of caring for a disabled spouse, and the routines she cultivated to be a healthy caregiver.
2. Disability and the Way of Jesus by Bethany McKinney Fox. Fox considers a surprising truth: many people in the disability community hate hearing Bible stories about healing. She applies a scholar’s eye to the stories of Jesus healing people, considering how he values people as more than just problems to be solved.
3. Disability and the Problem of Evil by Zachary D. Schmoll. Diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy at 18 months old, Schmoll has faced the questions that having a disability raises for nearly his entire life. He combines a discussion about what it means to have a disability with an apologetics discussion about the problem of evil—why is there suffering in the world today? Do the conventional Christian conclusions give satisfying answers for people who have disabilities through no fault of their own? His discussion is honest, intelligent, and satisfying.
4. Disabling Mission, Enabling Witness by Benjamin T. Conner. This book combines two academic discussions—theology and disability studies—to suggest the key to making the church more welcoming to the disability community is more radical than someone Christians think. Christians must learn to make people with disabilities central to their church, not just accommodate them. Doing so honors God’s commands to love everyone and yields unexpected spiritual growth as congregations transform.
5. My Body Is Not A Prayer Request by Amy Kenny. One heartbreaking truth about disability discussions is how often Christians say things to disabled people that come across as flippant, treating them more as something to solve than as inherently valuable humans. Kenny helps readers to see the pitfalls, have better conversations, and develop a theology that embraces people across the disability spectrum.
Further Reading: How Did Jesus Treat People with Disabilities in the Bible?
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