My Books of 2021

It is always interesting to look back at my reading from the year to see what themes emerge. My reading seldom follows any predetermined plan, other than required reading from my graduate classes, but instead is somewhat impulsive. My next book tends to be what strikes me "in the moment" and holds my attention in the first few pages. If I'm not feeling it, I set it aside and try another. It may sound pretty random, but it works for me. Some books get set aside multiple times (for multiple years) before they hold my attention. A couple of those books made my list this year (The Discipline of Grace, When Helping Hurts, and Multiply) while others had me the first time I opened the cover (The Cross and the Lynching Tree, Jesus and John Wayne, It's Not Supposed to Be This Way, Just Mercy, and At the Foot of the Snows). Some came with high recommendations, and I found them disappointing (Falling Upward and The Discipline of Grace). Others were pleasant surprises because I knew nothing about them until I started reading (At the Foot of the Snows, The Kingdom Unleashed, and Spent Matches).

With all that, here are the themes I see from the past year:

• Reckoning with race, both past, and present

• How the Church should look in the world and how it has looked in the past

• Theology that matters

Not Pictured: The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone and Follow Me by David Platt

Perhaps these themes (as well as the recommendations below) are more revealing about my own spiritual reclamation project than anything else and say much about my personal struggles with the way faith, Church, and culture interact.

Within each is an abundance of uncomfortable questions that are difficult to answer with a high degree of certainty but are worth our attention nonetheless. They are complex topics that are too often dealt with in overly simplistic terms or brushed aside by those who would rather hang on to the status quo or harken back to "how things used to be." They are the sorts of things that all Christians should be wrestling with, at some level, but often don't, and each are areas in which I have found myself "pushing back" against popular, entrenched thinking.

With that in mind, here is my complete list of books from 2021:

Must Read

• The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone - Easily the most impactful book I read this year. If there is only one book from my list that you read, this should be it. After the first chapter, I realized how little I understand concerning the crucifixion of Christ. I may understand it on an intellectual level, but it doesn't impact me on an emotional/spiritual level in the same way as my brothers and sisters who have the fear of the lynching tree as part of their history.

Highly Recommended

• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson - This is an eye-opening book about the inequities often inherent in our criminal justice system. Reading this in conjunction with Rethinking Incarceration by Dominique DuBois Gilliard will make you reconsider what you thought you knew about our criminal justice system.

• It's Not Supposed to Be This Way by Lysa Terkeurst - In this book, Terkeurst shares an amazing perspective on remaining faithful when your world is crumbling around you; when you can't understand what God is up to. She shares honestly and powerfully not from theory, but from experience.

• At the Foot of the Snows by David E. Waters - Would you take your wife and two young boys to the remote Himalayan Mountains in Nepal to live with people whose language you don't know so you can translate the Bible and share the gospel with them? Me neither, but David Waters did and his story is incredible!

• Spent Matches by Roy Moran - If you are like me and have this nagging feeling that the way we "do church" doesn't seem quite right, read this book. If you think we are doing everything right, read this book. If you are looking for another way to think about and be the Church, read this book.

• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass - Reading a history book is ok, but reading the words of someone who is part of that history is even better. Frederick Douglass lived through the days of slavery and his perspective is eye-opening and gut-wrenching.

• Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes DuMez - For many years I struggled with a variety of teachings promoted by the conservative evangelical world, but I couldn't always put my finger on what was bothering me. It took me stepping away from that world to understand it all better and this book sheds more light on why I was bothered in the first place. At times it is unnecessarily harsh and it makes no attempt to find any sort of balance, but if you are willing to read critically, this has much to offer in its critique of the conservative evangelical world of the last several decades.

• When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett - Sometimes the way we think about missionary work around the world is not very helpful, in fact, it can often have the opposite effect. This book may cause you to rethink what you thought you knew about missions.

Worthwhile Reading

• The Kingdom Unleashed by Jerry Trousdale and Glenn S. Sunshine - After reading Spent Matches, you should read this to get a better understanding of how the Church is advancing in the rest of the world (yes there is more to the Christian world than North America).

• Follow Me by David Platt - A challenging study for being and making disciples.

• Factfulness by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, and Anna Rosling Ronnlund - Things in the world are better than you think and this book has the data to prove it.

Good, but...

• Western Christians in Global Missions by Paul Borthwick - Along with When Helping Hurts, this book describes how those of us in the west can be most effective and useful in global missions.

• The Drama of Scripture by Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen - From this group, this is probably the most worthwhile and readable book. It gives a great overview of the whole Bible and lays out the consistent story that is woven throughout all of scripture.

• Reading Paul by Michael J. Gorman - This has a narrow audience but it gives good insight into Paul's writings in scripture.

• Introducing the New Testament by Paul J. Achtemeier, Joel B. Green, and Marianne Meye Thompson - This is basically a textbook but it is a good overview of New Testament theology.

Didn't Resonate with Me

• Falling Upward by Richard Rohr - This book, more than the others, is why I titled this category the way I did. For some of my friends, this was a powerful book and for that reason, I would encourage you not to discount it based on my assessment. But the reality is that I just did not connect with it.

• The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges

• The Unsaved Christian by Dean Inserra - Unlike the other books in this group, I actually was annoyed reading this book. Inserra takes an incredibly important problem and reduces the solution to a generic formula that has been passed on for ages and has led to the current stagnation of the Church today.

• On This Day in Christian History by Robert J. Morgan - While this book claims to be inspiring, more often I found it to be a depressing reminder of how brutal and violent our Christian history is.

• White Awake by Daniel Hill - There is some good stuff in this, but I struggled with having a white guy telling me how to deal with my whiteness. Maybe I just wasn't ready for it.