Do you love to read? Do you want to learn to love to read? Do you enjoy reading books that cross the whole spectrum of topics and genres? Then I’ve got something that may be right up your alley—the 2022 Christian Reading Challenge.

Whether you are a light reader or completely obsessed, this 2022 Christian Reading Challenge is designed to help you read more and to broaden the scope of your reading.

How It Works

The 2022 Christian Reading Challenge is composed of 4 lists of books, which you are meant to move through progressively. You will need to determine a reading goal early in the year and set your pace accordingly.

The Light Reader. This plan has 13 books which sets a pace of 1 book every 4 weeks.
The Avid Reader. The Avid plan adds another 13 books which increases the pace to 1 book every 2 weeks.
The Committed Reader. This plan adds a further 26 books, bringing the total to 52, or 1 book every week.
The Obsessed Reader. The Obsessed plan doubles the total to 104 books which sets a demanding pace of 2 books every week.

Begin with the Light plan, which includes suggestions for 13 books. Choose those books and read them in any order, checking them off as you complete them. When you have finished those 13, advance to the Avid plan. Use the criteria there to choose another 13 books and read them in any order. Then it’s time to move to the Committed plan with a further 26 books. When you have completed the Committed plan (that’s 52 books so far!), you are ready to brave the Obsessed plan with its 104 books. Be sure to set your goal at the beginning of the year so you can make sure you’re reading at the right pace.

All you need to do is download the list (or buy a printed version—see below), choose your first few books, and get going. Happy reading in 2022!

Ideas

Take the challenge with your spouse and divide the list in two.
Take the challenge with your family and divide the books between the entire family
Take the challenge with your youth group or small group and divide the books between all of you. Regularly report on your progress with short reviews.
Set your goal and read the books from all of your lists in any order (rather than progressing from Light to Avid to Committed).
Discard all the rules and choose books from any plan in any order. Use the 2022 Christian Reading Challenge as a guide to diversifying your reading.
Use #vtReadingChallenge to connect and to keep track of others on social media.
Have fun with it!

Get the Challenge

The 2022 Christian Reading Challenge is available in 2 formats: plain and pretty. The plain version is a simple list you can easily print at home. The pretty version is styled as an infographic and will look amazing on your wall all year round. It might also make a neat Christmas gift. You can purchase it as a professionally-printed poster from our store. Those who subscribe to Visual Theology can download the HD file to print at home or take to a local printer.

This week the blog is sponsored by Moody Publishers and this post is adapted from The Kindness of God by Nate Pickowicz (© 2024). Published by Moody Publishers. Used by permission.
Just like the Old Testament, the New Testament teaches that this wonderful salvation is extended to us as a kindness. Paul opens his letter to the Ephesians by talking about God’s gracious work of salvation toward His people. In saving His people, God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself ” (Eph. 1:4–5a). What is the basis of God’s saving work? We read that it is “according to the kind intention of His will” (Eph. 1:5; cf. Eph. 1:9, emphasis added). We are saved because God extends His own lovingkindness to us.
Furthermore, despite being “dead in [our] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1), God “made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (v. 5). Why? It is “so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7, emphasis added). Through His own act of salvation, God puts His loving character on display, and we are presented as trophies of His divine grace.
It is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross that makes the forgiveness of sin possible for us. Nate PickowiczShare
Similarly, in Paul’s letter to Titus, we see another expression of God’s kindness in salvation. We read, “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us . . .” (Titus 3:4–5a). In this verse, we essentially see Jesus Christ as God’s kindness personified. One could almost picture God’s own love and kindness wrapped in the person of Jesus who comes and redeems us.  What a glorious picture!
The Bible teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Him-self God in human flesh (John 1:1–3, 14), came to earth and lived in perfect obedience to every law of God, thus perfectly fulfilling the divine standard. Jesus lived sinlessly (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22), and thereby gave Himself up to be killed as an atoning sacrifice—a propitiation—for sin (1 John 2:2). Being the only acceptable sacrifice for sin, Jesus Christ died in the place of sinners as a substitute (1 Peter 2:24), paying a ransom to the Father; redeeming us from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13).
Through the sacrificial death of Jesus, we can have our sins forgiven by God (Col. 2:13), and we are justified—declared righteous and pardoned by God, even though we’re guilty and unrighteous (Rom. 3:28; Gal. 2:16). It is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross that makes the forgiveness of sin possible for us. And not only forgiveness, but reconciliation to God—the restoration of relationship. More than this, God actually adopts us as His own (Rom. 8:12–17; Gal. 4:4–7). Now, we who were formerly His enemies have now become God’s children.
It is only by the death of Christ that we will find any hope of forgiveness for sin. All other attempts to “get right with God” are doomed to fail. Why? Because, by nature, we are sinful creatures, and when we try to accomplish anything of redeeming value, God turns up His nose and is repulsed by the gesture (Isa. 64:6–7). Any attempt we make to justify ourselves before Him is insulting and futile. Only the perfect work of Jesus Christ on our behalf is pleasing to the Father. All in all, we see that God’s offer of salvation to sinners is a glorious demonstration of His goodness and kindness. 

We all want more of God. Anyone who professes to be a Christian will acknowledge a sense of sorrow and disappointment when they consider how little they know of God and how little they experience of his presence. Every Christian or Christianesque tradition acknowledges this reality and offers a means to address it.
Mystics may promise that a deeper experience of God can be had through contemplation. Monastics may promise that a deeper experience of God can be had through practicing his presence. Roman Catholics may promise that a deeper experience of God can be had through the Mass. Proponents of Higher Life theology may promise that a deeper experience of God can be had through a second blessing. Pentecostals may promise that a deeper experience of God can be had through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Though the means are different, the core issue is the same—we feel intuitively that we do not know God or experience his presence as completely as we wish to. We live out our Christian lives with a sense of longing for more—more of God, more of knowing him, more awareness of his nearness and power.
I write here for other Christians who hold to Reformed theology and especially for younger ones. I want you to know that you make yourself spiritually vulnerable when you determine that your spiritual longing necessarily indicates a weakness in your faith or practice. For every longing there is a tradition, a church, a book, or a program that promises to satisfy it and people like you can often become spiritual nomads, sojourning among the various traditions to try their solutions. Or you can become spiritual hybrids, integrating a bit of this, a bit of that, and a bit of the other thing, even when they are mutually contradictory. You may even be tempted to reject Reformed theology and practices altogether in favor of something else. But I want to encourage you to be patient, to be wise, and to be content.
You make yourself spiritually vulnerable when you determine that your spiritual longing necessarily indicates a weakness in your faith or practice.Share
Here is something that needs to be said about any tradition: None of them will ultimately satisfy us. None can or will actually deliver us to a higher plane of spiritual experience and none will fully satisfy our longing for more. Why is that? Because the longing is unresolvable at the present time. We can certainly know God better than we do now and can certainly have a deeper experience of his power and presence, but we will never experience it to the degree we long for. At least, not until we are finally welcomed into God’s immediate presence.
In contrast to so many other traditions, the Reformed tradition offers no higher tier of Christian living. Neither does it offer rapturous experiences or second blessings. Rather, it looks carefully to Scripture and offers ordinary means of grace—means that are equally available to all of us as we participate in the local church and live out our faith through a personal relationship with the Lord.
I know the word “ordinary” sounds very plain and uninspiring. What are ordinary means when compared to extraordinary visions or ecstatic experiences? But this is what we need to understand: God does not owe us anything other than complete separation from him. Anything more than being eternally banished from his presence is breathtaking evidence of his mercy and kindness. Though we deserve to be forever separated from God’s presence, he lovingly offers us means through which we can relate to him and through which he lavishes his grace upon us so we grow in joy and sanctification and satisfaction in him. Because of what we have done, it is God who now sets the terms of our relationship. The question is: Will we be content with this or will we demand more? Will we accept what he has so graciously given us or will we demand the right to relate to him on our terms? Will we invent or adopt means he has not prescribed or endorsed?
I hold to Reformed theology and am convinced it is most consistent with Scripture. I understand why many people believe that Reformed theology works itself out in a faith that is coldly intellectual instead of warmly experiential. We have probably all known people who have exemplified that aloof intellectual approach to the faith. But this is not the way it has to be and not the way it is meant to be. Reformed theology is experiential, but crucially, it constrains itself to the experiences the Bible permits. Perhaps you would do well to read up on experiential theology which “teaches that Christianity is not only a creed and a way of life but also an inner experience resulting from personal fellowship with God through the indwelling Spirit.” Instead of resenting the tradition or walking away from it, fully embrace it! If you have been discouraged by the examples you have seen, go deeper into the tradition and resolve to display what it means to live a life that flows out of the soundest doctrine.
With all that in mind, let me speak to you as a kind of spiritual older brother. My call to you is to remain resolute in pursuing God through the means that he has prescribed. Come to see that when we speak of ordinary means, we are not indicating the means are plain, pedestrian, or prosaic. They are ordinary in the sense that all of us can ordinarily expect God to bless them and sanctify them to his purposes. God has granted them to us and it now falls to us to receive them gratefully and practice them faithfully. It falls to us to resist looking for solutions that will deliver a higher life, a second blessing, or a mystical rapture, and to resist being swayed by those who promise there is so much more to be had if only we will follow this ancient discipline or subscribe to that modern program. Instead, I’d call upon you to embrace the reality that your longings will never be fully satisfied on this side of the grave, that so much of what you desire today is the right longing, but at the wrong time.
This is not a call to apathy but a call to remain steady and resist chasing what will always remain out of reach. Acknowledge that your sense of longing is part of God’s will for you right now and that it cannot be resolved in this world. And embrace this reality: that you can only be spiritually content when you admit, identify, and accept your spiritual discontentment. Instead of trying to satisfy that discontentment in ways God does not invite or permit, let it deepen your longing for the day when you will finally be in God’s presence—the day when you will at last know and experience God in all the ways your heart has ever longed for.