Reading Record

2024

1. Empire - Conn Iggulden
2. Testosterone - Carole Hooven (audible)
3. Sure I'll Join Your Cult - Maria Bamford (audible)
4. A Brief Theology of Periods - Rachel Jones
5. Any Human Heart - William Boyd
6. Dominion and Dynasty - Stephen Dempster
7. 4000 Weeks - Oliver Burkemann (audible)
8. Three or More, Grove Booklets - Andrew Bunt
9. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
10. 3-2-1 - Glen Scrivener
11. Bad Therapy - Abigail Shrier (Audible)
12. The Truth About Lies - Mack Stiles
13. Visible Grace - Caleb Butcher 
14. The Message of Hosea - Derek Kidner

2023

1. Alexander the Great - Dominic Sandbrook
2. Powerful Leaders? - Marcus Honeysett
3. The Fury of the Vikings - Dominic Sandbrook
4. False Alarm - Bjorn Llornberg (audible)
5. Dune - Frank Herbert (audible)
6. Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis
7. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
8. Gender Quality - Stef Liston
9. Two Views on Women in Ministry - Keener, Blonberg, etc.
10. The Gates of Rome - Conn Igguldenn
11. It Takes a Church to Raise a Parent - Rachel Turner
12. Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools - Tyler Stanton (audible)
13. God Has a name - John Mark Comer (audible)
14. Guernica - Dave Boling
15. The Air We Breathe - Glen Scrivener
16. The Secret Place of Thunder - John Starke
17. The Meaning of Singleness - Danielle Treweek
18. Lion - Conn Iggulden
19. The First World War - Dominic Sandbrook
20. 1776: Remaking the World - Andrew Wilson
21. The Toxic War on Masculinity - Nancey Pearcey
22. The Game of Thrones - Audible
23. Animal Farm - George Orwell
24. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalinisi
25. A Praying Church - Paul Miller
26. Never Split the Difference - Paul Voss (audible)
27. Women In the Church - Tom Schreiner & Andreas Kostenberger
28. The Body Keeps the Score - Bessel Van Der Kolk (audible)
29. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
30. Adventures in Accountant - Andrew Meggs
31. Nine O'Clock in the Morning - Dennis Bennett
32. This Side of the Door - John Hosier

2022

1. Abortion - Dr Lizzie Ling
2. God's Sketchbook - Jake Goodison
3. Gods of War - Meic Pearse
4. Return to Roar - Jenny McLaughlin
5. Born to Run - Chris McDoughall (audible)
6. Stolen Focus - Johann Hari
7. Gay Girl, Good God - Jackie Hill Perry (audible)
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - J. R. R. Tolkein
9. The Intentional Father - Jon Tyson (audible)
10. The Christbook Matthew 1-12 - Dale Bruner
11. Why Does God Allow War? - Martyn Lloyd Jones
12. The Gates of Athens - Conn Iggulden
13. Is Atheism Dead? - Eric Metaxes (audible)
14. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self - Carl Trueman
15. Beautiful Resistance - Jon Tyson (audible)
16. Adam's Return - Richard Rohr
17. The Power of Moments - Chip Heath & Dan Heath (audible)
18. Fully Human - Steve Biddulph
19. 1 Corinthians For You - Andrew Wilson
20. Multiplanting - Colin Baron
21. A Non-Anxious Presence - Mark Sayers
22. Scars Across Humanity - Elaine Storkey
23. I Am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes
24. How To Hear God's Voice - Pete Greig (audible)
25. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell
26. Live No Lies - John Mark Comer (audible) x 2
27. The Bethlehem Story - Andy McCullogh
28. The Story of Christianity - David Bentley Hart
29. Making Faith Magnetic - Dan Strange
30. The Lion, The With & the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
31. The Cross & the Lynching Tree - James Cole
32. 
    

2021

1. Gentle & Lowly - Dane Ortland
2. Darien - Conn Iggulden (audible)
3. Marie Durand - Simonetta Carr
4. The Gates of Athens - Conn Iggulden
5. Letter From Birmingham Jail - Martin Luther King, Jr.
6. When Father's Ruled - Steven Ozment
7. American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins
8. The Promised Land - Barak Obama (audible)
9. Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy - Steve Mann
10. Culture Care - Makoto Fujimura
11. George Muller - Roland Miller
12. Grace-Filled Marriage - Claire & Steve Musters
13. Greenlights - Matthew McCougnay (audible)
14. Identity - Francis Fukyama
15. The Battle for Christian Britain - Callum Brown
16. Walking with God through Pain and Suffering - Timothy Keller
17. Dominion - Tom Holland
18. Unspoken - GuvnaB
19. The Eye of the Needle - Ken Follett
20. In Order to Live - Yeonmi Park
21. Shiang - Conn Iggulden (audible)
22. The Sword Saint - Conn Iggulden (audible)
23. The Atomic Power of Habits - James Clear (audible)
24. People Not Pronouns - Andrew Bunt
25. Boys, God & the Church - Nick Harding
26. 12 More Rules For Life - Jordan Peterson
27. How the West Really Lost God - Mary Eberstadt
28. That Hideous Strength - Melvin Tinker
29. The Boy Crisis - Warren Farrell
30. The Myth of Male Power - Warren Farrell (audible)
31. The Land of Roar - Jenny McLaughlin
32. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - J. R. R. Tolkien 
33. Jesus Revolution - Greg Laurie & Ellen Vaughn
34. There is Always Enough - Roland & Heidi Baker
35. Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Eric Metaxes (audible)

2020

1. A Meal With Jesus - Tim Chester
2. How to Pray - Pete Greig (audible)
3. The Boy, the Horse, the Fox and the Mole - Charlie Macksay
4. The Pastor - Eugene Peterson
5. Falcon of Sparta - Conn Iggulden
6. Global Humility - Andy McCullogh
7. The Unseen Realm - Michael Heiser
8. Fly on the Wall - John Woods
9. A Better Story - Glynn Harrison
10. Job - Christopher Ash
11. The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R Tolkien
12. A Time to think - Nancy Kline 
13. Garden City - John Mark Comer
14. We Need to Talk About Race - Ben Lindsey
15. The Beekeeper of Aleppo - Cristy Lefteri
16. The Tattowitz of Auschwitz - Heather Morris
17. On the Incarnation - St Athanasius
18. The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz - Jeremy Dronfield
19. Guns, Germs & Steel - Jared Diamond
20. The Choice - Edith Eger
21. The Big Ego Trip - Glynn Harrison
22. Where is god in suffering - AMY Orr-Ewing 
23. I’m ok you’re ok - Thomas Harris 
24. Games people play 

2019

1. Understanding and Treating Sex Addiction - Paula Hall
2. Perfectionism - Will Van Der Hart
3. A War of Loves - David Bennett
4. Playing God, Redeeming the Gift of Power - Andy Crouch (audible)
5. iGen - Jean Twenge
6. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
7. 3 Theories of Everything - Ellis Potter
8. Forgotten God - Francis Chan (audible)
9. Stumbling Along with God - Ellis Potter
10. How Do You Know That? - Ellis Potter
11. If I Perish - Esther Ahn Kim
12. Confronting Porn - Paula Hall
13. Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert - Rosaria Champagne Butterfield (audible)
14. The Hobbit - J. R. R Tolkien 
15. Beyond The Ranges - Geraldine 
16. Love Thy Body - Nancy Pearcey
17. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry - John Mark Comer

2018

1. 12 Ways to Your Phone Is Changing You - Tony Reinke
2. None Like Him - Jen Wilkens
3. Who You Are When No One's Watching - Bill Hybels
4. Cold - Ranulph Fiennes
5. 12 Rules For Life - Jordan Peterson
6. The Empty Self - Jeffery Satinover
7. Bad Dad - David Walliams 
8. Ministering With Emotional Intelligence
9. Disappearing Church - Mark Sayers
10. Dirty Glory - Pete Greig
11. Dunstan - Conn Iggulden
12. The Hiding Place - Corrie ten Boom
13. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis (audible)
14. Letters to the Church - Francis Chan
15. What Good Is God - Philip Yancey
16. 'Til We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis (audible)
17. Fools & Mortals - Bernard Cornwell
18. Foolishness to the Greeks - Leslie Newbigin
19. The Abolition of Man - C.S. Lewis
20. The Problem of Pain - C.S. Lewis (audible)
21. The Coddling of the American Mind - Jonathan Haidt (audible)
22. 
    

2017

1. Who Is This Man - John Ortberg
2. True Grit - Bear Grylls
3. Future Men - Douglas Wilson (unfinished)
4. Shame & Honour - Roland Muller
5. Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall
6. Nomad - Alan Partridge (audible)
7. Getting Things Done - (audible)
8. Start With Why - Simon Senik (audible) 
9. Humble Roots - Hannah Anderson
10. The Power of Habit - (audible)
11. Twelve Brain Rules - John Medina (audible)
12. The Day the Revolution Began - Tom Wright
13. Kingdom, Hope and the End of the World - Ian Paul
14. Things of the Earth - Joe Rigney
15. Ravenspur - Conn Iggulden 
16. Making Sense of God - Tim Keller
17. Reaching Muslims - Nick Chatrath
18. The Quest for Perfection - Rhonda Knight
19. The Unquenchable Flame - Mike Reeves
20. The Bruised Reed - Richard Sibbes
21. The Shantung Compound - Langdon Gilkey
22. Small Town Jesus - Donnie Griggs
23. Daring Greatly - Brene Brown
24. Endurance - Alfred Lansing
25. 
    

2016

1. Living a Life of Fire - Reinhard Bonke 
2. Center Church - Tim Keller
3. A Short Life of Cotton Mather
4. Trinity - Conn Igguldenn 
5. Encounters With Jesus - Tim Keller
6. How Not To Be Secular - James Smith
7. Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
8. Two Years, eight months and twenty eight nights - Salmon Rushdie Not finished
9. Gospel Powered Parenting - William Farley Not finished
10. The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment - Jeremiah Burroughs NtF 
11. The Magicians' Nephew - C.S. Lewis 
12. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis 
13. That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis 
14. You Are What You Love - James Smith
15. Gospel-Centered Family - Tim Chester 
16. Chav Christianity - Darren 
17. The Churchill Factor - Boris Johnson
18. Emotional Intelligence - Not finished
19. The Righteous Mind - Jonathan Heidt (Audible)
20. Everyday Supernatural - Mike P 
21. Unapologetic - Francis Spufford (Audible)
22. The Happiness Hypothesis - Jonathan Heidt (Audible)
23. How To Win Friends And Influence People - Dale Carnegie
24. Fit To Burst - Rachel Jankovic
25. Paths to Glory - Jeffery Archer

2015

• Prayer - Tim Keller
• Loving the Little Years - Rachel Jankovic
• The Wisdom House - Rob Parsons
• Father Hunger - Doug Wilson
• Home For Good - Krish Kandiah Not finished
• The Triumph of Christianity - Rodney Stark

2014

Simon Holley - Sustainable Power completed

Comments: Excellent book. A great encouragement to action in praying for the sick and pursuing acts of courage.
Take homes off the top of my head: 

• persevere with praying for the sick. Stories told of a man who committed to praying every week for a 1.5yrs for a woman who was sick, she recovered and he learnt a lot about the nature of persevering prayer.
• praying for the sick. Ask people to 'test it' if they can, ask how much pain they're in 'out of 10?'
• stories really build faith and expectancy

Alec Motyer - Preaching part through

Bill Johnson - The Supernatural Ways of Royalty started

Conn Iggulden - Quantum of Tweed (fiction) completed

Paul Copan - Is God a Moral Monster part through

Alister McGrath - Doubting Completed

Comments: Loved it. The book I've been wanting to read for a long time!
Take homes off the top of my head:

• Faith deals in worldviews and ideas which by their very nature we can never be 100% certain about. The person committed to any kind of -ism has to learn to live with doubt. 
• Doubt is a normal part of the life of faith.

Paul Miller - A Praying life completed

Comments: A great book. Any book that gives me an increased desire to pray is a well-received book and gift to my Christian life. I'm going to write a review alongside some of the quotes to add further comments to what I thought of the book. Initial take homes:

• Seeing the 'fingerprints' of God over all of my life. Learning to spot how God is at work in the world.
• The book was good at emphasising: 'God is a person' and the fact that we are to develop a relationship with him, a person.
• 'If we approach prayer thinking all the while about prayer then we'll struggle, rather like driving and focusing on the windscreen makes driving difficult.'

Conn Iggulden - Blackwater (fiction) Completed

Michael Reeves - Enjoy Your Prayer Life Completed

Great book. Short book with plenty to re-read and quote. One of the things that initially made an impression on me was:

Prayerlessness is functional atheism. 

That's powerful, right there!

Tom Wright - How God Became King half way

John Stott - Galatians Completed

Tom Wright - Galatians For Everyone Completed

GK Chesterton - Orthodoxy half way

Steve Bidulph - Raising Boys Completed

Ed West - The Silence of Our Friends Completed

Andy Stanley - Deep & Wide Completed

Great book! Lots of really helpful stuff about the importance and strategy of reaching unchurched people with the gospel and building churches that unchurched people love to attend.

Great insight as well on what makes people grow in God, something around which they have then built their small groups:

P - Private disciplines
P - Practical teaching
P - Personal ministry
P - Providential relationships
P - Pivotal circumstances

That'll stay with me for sure.

James Emery White - The Rise of the Nones Completed

Good book. Good stuff on cultural trends, Christian spiritual narcissism and a memorable section about the words taken out of the dictionary...

Larry Osborne - Sticky Church Started

Shepherding a Child's Heart - Ted Tripp Completed

Follow Me - David Platt Completed

Stormbird - Conn Iggulden Completed

Enders Game - Completed

The Maze Runner - James Dashner Completed

Christ Our Life - Mike Reeves Completed

Unbreakable - Andrew Wilson Completed
The Blessed Life - Robert Morris 

Deep & Wide: Andy Stanley

Deep & Wide - Andy Stanley

On the actual responsibility of leadership as opposed to our perceived responsibility. Give of yourself:

As leaders we are never responsible for filling anyone else's cup. Our responsibility is to empty ours.

On the importance of integrity and the primary importance of being a dad and husband before a church leader:

What goes on at home is the litmus test of a man or woman's walk with God, not how well he or she does once a microphone is strapped on.

On the need of the church:

The church needs leaders who are willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure that we hand it off to the next generation in better shape than we found it.

On the real nature of church as people not building:

An ekklesia was simply a gathering or an assembly of people called out of specific purpose. Ekklesia never referred to a specific place, only a specific people.

...While it's amazing that the church survived the persecution of the first century, it may be more amazing that it survived the institutionalisation and corruption of the centuries that followed. But it did survive. Jesus promised it would. As it turned out, the kirche of man could not contain the ekklesia of Jesus.

On the gospel message:

The New Testament is clear. We are not mistakers in need of correction. We are sinners in need of a Saviour.

 Grace or truth?

Jesus did not come to strike a balance between grace and truth. He brought the full measure of both.

It's easy to create an all-truth church model. It may be even easier to create an all-grace model. But Jesus didn't leave either option on the table. 

It's pointless to tell me I'm forgiven if I'm not sure why I need forgiveness in the first palce. That's the beauty of grace and truth. They compliment. They are both necessary. They are not part of a continuum. They are not opposite ends of a pole. They are the two essential ingredients. Without massive doses of both, you won't have a healthy gathering.

On pastoral approach:

We walk toward to messes. In other words, we don't feel compelled to sort everything or everyone out ahead of time. We are not going to spend countless hours creating policies for every eventuality. Instead we've chosen to wade in hip-deep and sort things out one relationship, one conversation, at a time.

Great quote on integrity:

If you want to know what people mean by what they say, watch what they do. Actions don't only speak louder than words; actions should be used to interpret words. 

Communication section:

People are far more interested in what works than what's true. I hate to burst your bubble, but virtually nobody in your church is on a truth quest. Including your spouse. They are on happiness quests.

On finding connection points with an audience and being students of people:

Culture is like the wind. You can't stop it. You shouldn't spit in it. But, if like a good sailor you will adjust your sails, you can harness the winds of culture to take your audience where they need to go.

On getting people to read their Bibles: 'I'm not above saying things like "You should read the Bible so you will have more moral authority when you tell people you don't believe it. Don't be like the kid who says he doesn't like string beans but never tasted them. Come on, what are you afraid of!"

On challenging unchurched people as well as Christians, he says:

When people are convinced you want something FOR them rather than something FROM them, they are less likely to be offended when you challenge them.

Approach to preaching:

My approach is to entice the audience to follow me into one passage of scripture with the promise that the text is either going to answer a question they've been asking, solve a mystery they've puzzled over, or resolve a tension they've been carrying. Once we are in the text, I do my best to let it pseak for itself. I go slowly, I highlight words. I leverage the drama. I roll them around in the text until it gets all over them. I bring my energy to a text and I do my best to uncover the energy in the text. Once they are thoroughly embroiled with the passage, I take on carefully crafted statement that emerges from the point of the text and do everything in my power to make it stick.