Book Recommendations
Must Read list:
The Bible – Various Authors
It’s a classic! A must read! But don’t read it because you “should”, read it because you “want to”. I recommend placing yourself in the scenes – what would you feel, see, smell, and think? What is the experience and story telling you about yourself, others, and God? Don’t be afraid to ask yourself lots of questions about the passage – questions open us up to growth. When something moves you, sit in it long enough to let it change you inside and then put it into action as soon as possible. If you hit a dry, boring part, move on. The Word is living and active. Spend time in the places that are actively speaking to you, bringing you life, right where you are on your journey. Enjoy!
The Gift of Being Yourself – David Benner
This book is a great way to begin on a deeper journey of discovering God and yourself in more experiential and transformational ways. It will introduce you to concepts like your False Self and True Self, and truly knowing God experientially (from the heart) as opposed to simply knowing about God (in your head). Currently, this is the first book I usually recommend and go through with the young leaders I mentor.
Changes That Heal – Dr. Henry Cloud
I’m called to love God, love others, and love myself in healthy ways. I’ve found this book to be a useful tool in helping me become more aware of, and deal with, some of the issues that keep me from giving and receiving love.
In this book, Henry Cloud looks at four topics:
- Bonding with others to form healthy relationships (how to do that and what happens when I don’t)
- developing healthy Boundaries
- understanding the G0od and Bad in myself and others, and
- growing emotionally and spiritually toward Adulthood.
This is one of those books where I often see myself described in the author’s examples. Sometimes I wonder if Henry has been spying on me! As I honestly take a look at the issues he describes, and then invite God and his love into the issues that I deal with, I notice that I take another step in my journey of transformation and redemption.
The Emotionally Healthy Church
A Strategy for Discipleship that Actually Changes Lives – Peter Scazzero
The thesis of this book is that emotional health and spiritual health are inseparable. It is not possible for a Christian to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.
It is often our emotional immaturity and unhealthiness that causes problems and prevents us from growing spiritually and living out our spirituality in loving ways.
This book is a great overview of areas that we may need to continually mature in:
- how to get beneath the surface of the things that are holding us back
- how to break the power of the past
- how to live in brokenness and vulnerability, rather than in pride-fullness and defensiveness
- how to live within our human limits
- how to grieve our losses
- how to live a life of love, including how to actively listen in ways that bring about transformation
FYI: Peter has some interesting videos on YouTube.com. Just type “Peter Scazzero” in the search box.
Surrender To Love – David Benner
God wants us to move beyond responding to him out of fear and obedience to intimately relating with him out of true surrender to his Perfect Love. When we surrender to love, we may then be transformed by love and become love.
As I become more self-aware and God-aware, Surrender to Love continually means something deeper and richer to me.
As I walk with people on this journey, I like to save this book until we do some digging into their barriers to giving and receiving love, which may be uncovered from the previous three books mentioned. I find this book is more life-changing after a person has looked at some of the deeper things in need of surrender and on-going redemption.
Life of the Beloved – Henri Nouwen
Most anything by Henri is worth a read. He has such a beautiful heart and a wonderful vulnerability in the way he expresses it. In this book, Henri’s heart is crying out: “’You are the Beloved’, and all I hope is that you can hear these words as spoken to you with all the tenderness and force that love can hold. My only desire is to make these words reverberate in every corner of your being – ‘You are the Beloved’.” ”Becoming the Beloved means letting the truth of our Belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say, and do.” Wow, what might that look like in my life and your life and in our world if we would truly let this truth sink in and live out of it?
The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer To The Heart of God – Brent Curtis & John Eldredge
I enjoy thinking about the overall premise of this book: God is inviting us into an intimate romance with himself. He is continually working behind the scenes of our lives to woo us into a more loving relationship with himself, continually drawing us into deeper union with the family of the Trinity. When our hearts tell us there is something missing, there has to be something more, we need to listen. He is wooing us. ”You long to be in a love affair, an adventure. You were made for something more. You know it.” ”Follow me. Enter into the romance.”
Experiencing God – Blackaby and
I love the message of this daily study: Pay attention to where God is working and join him in it. Too often, I think we attempt to determine our own path and ask God to join us in it. We make God our helper, rather than letting him be God and we his helper. I believe this study can be life changing as it shifts the way we view our lives, circumstances, people around us, and the spiritual disciplines. Could it be that God has a more fun, exciting, loving, and fulfilling plan for our lives than we do?
The Lost Art of Disciple Making – Leroy Eims (out of print – you can still find it on the internet)
This book has been a great resource for me over the past 20 plus years of discipling people. Initially, it made me more aware of Jesus’ model of discipleship during his life and in the early church (investing intentionally in the few who would multiply, ultimately reaching the masses in ways that could be passes on). Then it provided me practical tools and objectives on what people need to be trained in. I see the need for our churches to revisit the model Jesus laid out for us, especially as fewer young people attend church programs. Join me in bringing the Lost Art back!
