Our goal at PastorBookshelf is to build a resource that pastors and those in the ministry (or training for it!) would find helpful–particularly in regard to books. In pursuit of this goal, we create or compile content in three different veins:
Overviews—Links, in about ten categories, for specific books.
Reviews—Written by members of our Review Program or links to reviews elsewhere.
Excerpts—Brief passages to familiarize with the author’s style, the goal of the book, etc.
It’s our hope that these three tools can help to better equip our readers to make informed decisions in what to read or what to buy.
Some of you may have already checked out the new PastorBookshelf site. For those of you who haven’t, let me encourage you to go take a look. We’re still featuring books of special interest to pastors, but instead of merely providing you with excerpts as we have in the past, we will now be connecting you to reviews and much more! Our goal is to become a one-stop portal for pastors to access the most helpful material on the internet relating to books and their authors.
Another benefit to our new format is the opportunity for you to (1) provide your feedback by rating books and leaving comments and (2) share your own reviews. In exchange for your reviews, you will be able to select books from our list, which we will ship to you free of charge! We’re still working out the details, so check back later at our Free page for more information.
Finally, you can now stay current by subscribing to our RSS feed. If you still prefer email, that’s fine. We will continue to send out a weekly email every Friday with the latest featured books. If you are not already subscribed, you can do that here.
We hope you will find these new changes helpful, and, as always, we invite your feedback.
A cross-section of five frontline leaders in the controversial emerging church movement sheds informative light on their beliefs and basic message to help us understand whether it’s all about new methods or a new message or both.
What are the beliefs of the new movement known as the emerging church? In thought-provoking debate, prominent emerging leaders John Burke, Mark Driscoll, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, and Karen Ward discuss their sometimes controversial views under the editorship of author and educator Robert Webber. Hear what they say about their views of Scripture, Christ, the atonement, other world religions, and other important doctrines, so you can come to your own conclusions about the emerging church.
In the words of author Greg Heisler, “Spirit-Led Preaching is a call issued to preachers, pastors, and teachers of homiletics to recover the Holy Spirit for expository preaching in the same way we have recovered the biblical text. . . . My plan for doing this is to recover the doctrine of pneumatology (the study of spiritual beings/phenomena) for our theology of preaching, resulting in a renewed emphasis on the powerful combination of Word and Spirit working together as the catalyst for powerful expository preaching.”
Heisler thoroughly examines how the Holy Spirit illuminates and empowers the preacher, opens the hearts of the hearers, and applies the message to their lives. Indeed, to ignore the Holy Spirit’s role in sermon preparation and delivery would be a considerable oversight.
Few subjects generate more heat in the Christian church today than the use of music in worship and evangelism.
Does God endorse music of every kind? Can we “cut and paste” secular rock music and “Christianize” it in the process? Should the Christian church unite in bringing rock music to the altar or in sending it to the bonfire?
Every musical form and every way of expressing it has as many detractors as it does promoters. Yet in recent years most of the conflicts have centred on what is generically known as rock music, which has become an increasingly dominant—and divisive—issue since it first slipped into church life some forty years ago.
Two respected Christian leaders and best-selling authors who together have many years of hands-on experience in worship, preaching, evangelism and music have combined to produce a book that examines this controversial subject, using both recent evidence and time-tested truths.
The doctrine of justification and covenant theology are two of the most basic and yet most misunderstood doctrines in the contemporary Reformed world. This volume addresses both doctrines carefully, biblically, theologically, and practically. Few books address both covenant theology and justification, and relate these two doctrines to our confessions and virtually no treatments address it from the point of view of the theological departments: Exegetical theology, Systematic Theology, Historical Theology, and Practical Theology. This volume is intended for an academic audience but it is accessible to intelligent laity.
The Reformation swept across Europe with a God-glorifying gospel of grace. Now the doctrine of grace cherished and proclaimed by the Reformers is under renewed assault from an unexpected place—the evangelical church itself.
With the help of several theologians, Gary L. W. Johnson and Guy P. Waters trace the background and development of two seemingly disparate movements that have surfaced within the contemporary church—the New Perspective(s) on Paul and the Federal Vision—and how they corrupt the truth of salvation by faith alone. By regaining a focus on the doctrine of grace, pastors, seminarians, and future leaders can regain the cohesion, coherence, and direction to truly build the church to withstand the attacks of false and empty doctrines.
The lure of success is seductive. The growth industry of leadership literature tends to be peppered with stories about McDonald’s and Wal-Mart. Whatever happened to Jesus, Peter and Paul? The Holy Spirit is the key to Paul’s success. (full excerpt…)
The Blogging Church Brian Bailey with Terry Storch Sharing the Story of Your Church Through Blogs
There is immense power in transparent communication. A blog with an honest, passionate, personal voice is worth so much more than another brochure or direct mail piece. (full excerpt…)
The journey to transformation begins with the desire to look at and own the truth about myself. It continues as I face the larger truth that I’m unable to permanently change myself without the power of God. (full excerpt…)
No Man Left Behind Patrick Morley, David Delk, and Brett Clemmer Build a Disciple-Making Ministry for Every Man in Your Church
It takes a long time to make a disciple. Jesus spent three years with His disciples, traveling with them, eating with them, teaching them. How can we expect to make disciples in a twenty-four-week class? (full excerpt…)
What is still needed is conflict resolution theory developed for and practiced in the context of the local church. Christian conflict theory must be theologically rooted and ecclesiastically integrated. (full excerpt…)
Few people have anything approaching an articulate philosophy—at least as epitomized by the great philosophers. Even fewer, I suspect, have a carefully constructed theology. But everyone has a worldview. (full excerpt…)
Fasting Lynne M. Baab Spiritual Freedom Beyond Our Appetites
Fasting encourages us to grow in true freedom. In fasting, God invites us to experience the kind of freedom that reflects the awesome reality that we have been freed from sin and death. (full excerpt…)
The Gay Gospel? Joe Dallas How Pro-Gay Advocates Misread the Bible
No wonder the gay Christian movement looks so appealing to the woman or man struggling with homosexuality. It offers them acceptance and understanding that they may never have found in the church. (full excerpt…)
Practicing Greatness Reggie McNeal 7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders
Greatness is earned. It is not a gift; it is a reward. It is not accidental; it is cultivated. It is not bestowed by others; it is self-determined. You do not need to hope it happens. You can plot a course to make it happen. (full excerpt…)
Christian apologetics lays before the watching world such a winsome embodiment of the Christian faith that for any who are willing to observe there will be an intellectually and emotionally credible witness to its fundamental truth. (full excerpt…)
For those who truly want to know and love God as he is, the warm and friendly Jesus, although an attractive idea, is but an idol. To enjoy a full-orbed faith will require that our idea of God gain some unnerving texture. (full excerpt…)
I want to help you think seriously about our responsibility to go to the unique “nation” of young people living in our current postmodern culture. Whether we admit it or not, we’ve become increasingly ineffective at the task. (full excerpt…)
Our priority mission is intimacy with God, and our secondary mission is intimacy with the family of God. When each team member keeps intimacy with God in the forefront, the end result will be a spiritually healthy team. (full excerpt…)
In addition to holding that Christian beliefs are true and consistent, the Christian must learn how to use them. Christian beliefs are not to be stacked in the warehouse of the mind; they are to be applied to the challenges of life. (full excerpt…)
God, Marriage, and Family Andreas J. Köstenberger with David W. Jones Rebuilding the Biblical Foundation
Western civilization is confronted with the need to define the meaning of the terms “marriage” and “family.” This is symptomatic of an underlying spiritual crisis that gnaws at the foundations of our once-shared societal values. (full excerpt…)
Gracious Christianity Douglas Jacobsen and Rodney J. Sawatsky Living the Love We Profess
Mean-spiritedness and hate are on the rise in both America and around the globe, and religion is often implicated. Instead of acting as a restraint, religion is sometimes the cause of tension, tirades, and terror. (full excerpt…)
Our goal at PastorBookshelf is to build a resource that pastors and those in the ministry (or training for it!) would find helpful–particularly in regard to books. In pursuit of this goal, we create or compile content in three different veins:
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