Marriage is one of those areas of life that takes a lot of work. Don’t get me wrong, the rewards are well worth the effort, but marriages take a lot of work to maintain and to grow.

And, for the Christian, marriage takes on even more significance due to the parallels with the area of discipleship. In fact, that is the main thrust of Gary Thomas’ book Sacred Marriage. He poses the question, “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?”

I firmly believe that one of God’s intentions in marriage is our happiness. And when we base our marriage on the foundation of Christ, happiness is one of the by-products. But I think Thomas may be correct in his statement that there is something deeper and more foundational than our happiness.

Paul uses the idea of marriage to communicate several key truths about Christ’s relationship with the church. And if Scripture exposes that symbolism, then it’s well worth our efforts to examine and understand as well.

So Sacred Marriage isn’t so much a book about marriage as it is a book about discipleship, within the context of marriage. As you seek to build a marriage upon the foundation of Christ, you’ll see how to discover and grow more in the character of Christ in the process.

And that is goal worth chasing.

If you are married, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. If even if you aren’t, there are several key principles of discipleship contained in these chapters. It’s well worth reading. You can find it on Amazon.

Several years ago, I met Dean Trune at a Christ In Youth conference. He spoke to the teens at that conference about spiritual disciplines, and especially the discipline of journaling.

I have put much of what I learned from him into practice in my own life with tremendous effect. His insights about journaling just seemed to make sense in my own thinking, and I have found them to be helpful in making my own habit of journaling much more impactful.

Since that first encounter with Dean, I have run into him a few times at different conferences and events. The last time I saw him, I picked up his book, The Path Toward Passion.

In this book, Dean outlines nine simple disciplines that can help us develop a greater passion for Jesus in our lives.One of these disciplines is journaling. Others include Bible reading, study, and memorization, praying, listening, fasting and worship. Each of these disciplines are laid out in simple, easy to read chapters, and can help you pursue a greater level of passion in your own life as you follow Jesus.

This is a short and simple book to read, but is proving to be a life-changing book for me. There isn’t really anything new to me in here, but the reminders it brings to light are well worth the time it takes to read it.

I highly recommend you pick up a copy of The Path Toward Passion. You won’t regret it. You can find it on Amazon.

Ministry requires that I wear many different hats. And while I provide a lot of team leadership to the staff I work with, and other leaders within the church, I’ve never though of that role in terms of being an executive. That has always help corporate overtones in my thinking.

But that’s not necessarily the case. According to the back of the dust jacket, “it doesn’t matter what size your organization is, or even whether you run an organization at all. Anyone who has responsibility for getting the right things done — anyone who seeks how best to self-deploy on the few priorities that will make the biggest impact — is an executive.”

In that light, I think The Effective Executive may be a helpful book for my leadership growth. It will encourage maintaining the right priorities, and help accomplish them effectively. And it has helped people for more than fifty years.

If you are in a position of leadership, no matter what the organization might be, you should probably read this book as well. You can pick up a copy on Amazon.

Every organization needs clarity. They need to be clear on who they are, on where they are going, on how they are getting there. Leaders need to lead their organizations from a position of clarity, both personally and for the organization as a whole. One example that comes to mind is the area of communication. Clarity is essential in order to communicate the the purpose and vision to everyone involved.

In Clarity First, Karen Martin writes a solid treatise for developing and achieving clarity for any organization, and these principles certainly apply to the church. Clarity will help unleash potential, increase growth, and achieve results.

According to the dust jacket, “Eliminating ambiguity is the first step for leaders and organizations to achieve strategic goals. Learn how to gain the clarity needed to make better decisions, lead more effectively, and boost organizational performance.”

If you think your church or business needs better clarity, you might want to read this as well. You can pick up a copy on Amazon.

The Bible is a narrative that begins and ends with two trees. There is the tree of life in the Garden of Eden, and then there is the tree with leaves that heal in the book of Revelation. All of the rest — God’s entire narrative for our lives — is found between these two trees.

The problem with the first tree is that it is surrounded by the Fall and the Curse. The second tree removes the Curse and restores us to a right relationship with God. And that reconciliation happens because of the cross of Christ.

Shane Wood is a professor at Ozark Christian College, and shows us both the bad news of our sin and the Curse, and the Good News that provides our restoration. Between Two Trees promises to be full of hope and encouragement. You can find a copy for yourself at Amazon.com.

At the start of 2019, I joined a program called LeaderBooks, from Michael Hyatt & Co. So far, I have read through several different books on leadership, from various viewpoints other than church leadership. Most of them are centered on the business world, and yet they contain principles that can be applied to almost any context.

This is especially true with Trillion Dollar Coach. Written by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle, this book examines the life and leadership lessons of Bill Campbell. You could probably say that Campbell was more of a coach than a leader, and that the people he invested in have turned to do the same for others.

In this book, the authors take a good look at Campbell’s principles and practices, and reveal some surprising – and not so surprising – insights.

I’m really enjoying this book, and look forward to seeing what I can take from it and implement into my leadership role in the church I serve. If you’d like to read it, you can grab one from Amazon.

My preferred style of preaching is expository preaching. To be sure, there is a place for topical sermons and other aspects of crafting a message for the church, but primarily, I much prefer to preach expositorily.

In doing so, it helps me to grow just as much as it does the listeners sitting in the pews. I enjoy taking a passage and moving from the page of Scripture to the pulpit, describing what the passage means, and how we can use it in application for our lives today as well.

To that end, I want to be the best preaching I can be, and studying books on the topic is always helpful. This book, New Testament Exposition, by Walter L. Liefeld, was one of the books I read in college for a homiletics class. While it has been around for a while, it is proving helpful to pull it out and reread it again.

Hopefully, it will reinforce some things I practice, and remind of things I need to incorporate into my sermon crafting and delivery. It’s available on Amazon from a variety of sellers. If you preach regularly, I recommend that you pick up a copy.