Bowling Alone
The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam (Simon & Schuster, 2000)
This is not a book about revival in the spiritual sense, but it explains well how our family-oriented society collapsed into mall-culture and offers a few signs of renewal. Pastors will need to make the applications to ministry. Putnam’s big book (414 pp. plus endnotes) is punctuated by charts and graphs and lots of quotable statistics.
The American Paradox
Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty by David G. Myers (Yale, 2000)
This is church-league “Bowling.” Myers, a psychology professor at Hope College, analyzes post-war trends in marriage and divorce, crime, media, and morality, and draws some implications for society and for people of faith.
Mustard Seed Versus McWorld
Reinventing Life and Faith for the Future by Tom Sine (Baker, 1999)
Sine approaches the trend data from a Christian perspective and brings to his findings an agenda for a simpler, faith-driven lifestyle. Sine’s engaging anecdotes from around the world are joined with recommendations for local churches to seed their own communities. The pastor whose congregation is younger, active, and aware of issues of environment, consumerism, and economic justice will appreciate Sine’s contribution.
Escape from Church, Inc.
The Return of the Pastor-Shepherd by E. Glenn Wagner (Zondervan, 1999)
After a sojourn as vice president of Promise Keepers, Wagner returned to a pastorate. Once there, he articulated the conviction that had been growing throughout his ministry and in his work with pastors through the men’s movement: pastors are shepherds, first, foremost, and finally. Too many have swallowed the heresy that contemporary pastors are more managers and marketers, Wagner says. He salts this admonition with biblical models and peppers it with present-day examples.
Jesus the Pastor
Leading Others in the Character and Power of Christ by John W. Frye (Zondervan, 2000)
The foreword is by Eugene Peterson, and that says a lot about Frye’s concept of the pastor. Frye draws on his personal experience in ministry and his encounters with the living Christ as much as he does the Gospel accounts to show how Jesus pastors.
They Call Me Pastor
How to Love the Ones You Lead by H.B. London and Neil Wiseman (Regal, 2000)
The 45 essays here read like articles in London’s Internet newsletter, “Pastor’s Briefing,” published by Focus on the Family. They are brief, direct, usually open with a personal story from the author’s ministry, and conclude with three or four exhortations. These short treatises aren’t anything a pastor couldn’t have come up with himself. Their merit is that someone else experienced the life, processed it, and penned a few lessons. The “me, too” factor makes the book worth perusing.
The Pastor’s Playbook
Coaching Your Team for Ministry by Stan Toler and Larry Gilbert (Beacon Hill, 2000)
Toler is a pastor. Gilbert founded Church Growth Institute. Both are advocates of team ministry. This little book (151 pp.) is for pastors who are perplexed by all the talk of team ministry. Chock full of steps, lists, and bullet statements, this really is a playbook for those who need to make the move from player or manager to coach.
The Dynamics of Spiritual Formation
by Mel Lawrenz (Baker, 2000)
Stuart Briscoe’s longtime associate and soon-to-be successor, Lawrenz shows how the regular activities of church, from Bible study to usher duty, are part of the spiritual formation of the believer. This is helpful for the pastor who struggles to find value in the ordinary and who is tempted to abandon familiar tactics in favor of untried. This is volume six in the series “Ministry Dynamics for a New Century.”
The Dynamics of Pastoral Care
by David Wiersbe (Baker, 2000)
In the fifth volume in the “Ministry Dynamics” series edited by his father, Warren, Wiersbe espouses the pastor-as-shepherd model of ministry in several chapters, but most of the book is simple how-to’s on such topics as visitation and leading worship.
NOTE: For your convenience, the following products, which were mentioned above, are available for purchase:
- Bowling Alone, by Robert D. Putnam
- The American Paradox, by David G. Myers
- Mustard Seed Versus McWorld, by Tom Sine
- Escape from Church, Inc., by E. Glenn Wagner
- Jesus the Pastor, by John W. Frye
- They Call Me Pastor, by H.B. London and Neil Wiseman
- The Pastor’s Playbook, by Stan Toler and Larry Gilbert
- The Dynamics of Spiritual Formation, by Mel Lawrenz
- The Dynamics of Pastoral Care, by David Wiersbe
Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
