Each year many bloggers post their favorite books for the year. I've done this myself for the past few years. Out of 45 books I read this year this is my top 10 books for 2018. Today I'll list 6-10, and tomorrow we'll mention 1-5.
Since retiring from active ministry my reading has changed somewhat. For instance, I read fewer books on pastoral ministry since I'm not serving in that role now. I tend to concentrate more on theology, philosophy, apologetics, and how our world is being impacted by various worldviews. You'll see this in the lists. As an act of editorial transparency, if you click on one of these books and purchase it through Amazon.com I will receive a small referral fee. Believe me, it's very small, but I wanted to be upfront with my readers!
10. Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked by Adam Alter. We all know how addictive technology can be with many of us checking our emails, Facebook and other media accounts so often it affects our productivity. The author points to studies that demonstrates that the average human had an attention span of 8 seconds in 2013. BTW - A goldfish has an attention span of 9 seconds. Problems associated with technology led Steve Jobs to not allow his children to use an iPad, and many other tech giants had similar rules in their homes. Why? Because they understood how addictive technology and social media can be. This fascinating book could be helpful to anyone in ministry for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is when we are helping someone with addictions associated with technology. One clinical psychologist told the author "Every single person I work with has at least one behavioral addiction." Chances are there are people in your church, or family, with the same problems.
9. Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals by Michael Hyatt. Numerous studies have shown that setting goals is critical to achieving success in any endeavor. Many years ago I followed a goal setting plan that allowed me to achieve more than I would have thought possible. If you do not have a goal setting program that works for you, this book will provide you with one. Did you know that merely by writing your goals boosted achievement by 42 percent? If you had read this book you would have known that. Now is the time to be setting your goals for 2019 and beyond which means now is a great time to follow the advice presented in this book.
8. Not God Enough: Why Your Small God Leads to Big Problems by J. D. Greear. Many of us, and many churches, like a small God who we believe we can control and predict. The problem is conceiving God in this way holds us back from experiencing the true God who wants to do marvelous things in our lives. One of my favorite chapters in the book discussed the burning bush encountered by Moses in the wilderness. While we don't know much about how Moses perceived God prior to that experience, we know what happened afterwards! Moses went on to do far more than he ever thought possible. The author points out several things that can burning bushes in our lives. I identified with some of them, and I guess you will, too.
7. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning. This is a troubling book that I could not put down. It tells the story of ordinary men who made up the Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the German Order Police in 1942. These men were responsible for mass shootings of Jewish people and rounding them up for shipment to Nazi death camps. The first time they were ordered to murder innocent people, many in the unit refused. As time went on three different groups emerged. One was a core of eager killers who enjoyed hunting down their victims, a second group who carried out their orders, and a third group who continued to refuse to carry out the killings. The meticulous research of this book followed many of the men in this unit. One of the reasons this book was so troubling was that it described how far down ordinary people can fall. Which of the three groups would any of us find ourselves? Until we face the pressures these men experienced I'm not sure we can honestly answer that question.
6. The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions by David Berlinski. This is a book I read a few years ago and decided it was time to reread it. One of the things that makes this book interesting is that the author identifies as a secular Jew who admits his religious training did not take. Most of his life has been committed to teaching and writing books about mathematics and the sciences, but here he takes on the New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. With biting humor and a brilliant mind he defends religious thought and attacks the idea that science disproves the existence of God. As he writes, "Confident assertions by scientists that in the privacy of their chambers they have demonstrated that God does not exist have nothing to do with science, and even less to do with God's existence." For me, this is a must read book for pastors and anyone who wants to better defend their faith against the attacks being made today against Christianity.
Tomorrow I'll share my favorite top five books that I read in 2018.
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