My Top Books of 2022
As another year draws to a close, I wanted to take some time to consider the books I read in 2022 and to assemble a list of my top picks. Apart from the first book, which I consider the best I read this year, the rest are in no particular order. In each case I’ve included a brief excerpt from my review. (You can read all of my book reviews here.)
You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News by Kelly Kapic. You know as well as I do that you are a finite being. Yet you know as well as I do that at times you fight against your finitude, you battle against your inevitable limits and boundaries as if they are a problem to be overcome or even a sin to be repented of. Yet what if your limits are not a bug but a feature of your humanity? What if these limitations are God’s gift and, therefore, good and worthy of embrace? These are the questions Kapic considers in this book. The answers are rooted in Scripture and tremendously encouraging. Best of all, it frees us to be who and what God created us to be–people who are little, limited, finite, and deeply loved. (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books | read my review)
The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality by Glen Scrivener. In the West today we are witnessing an attempt to “dechristianize” our society—to identify and destroy the influence of Christianity wherever it exists. The goal, of course, is to create a society that is post-Jesus and, therefore, post-Christian. Christian sexual morals are now said to be bigotry, Christian understandings of marriage and family are now said to be oppressive, Christian notions of justice are now said to be discriminatory. On and on it goes and over time this seek-and-destroy mission is transforming society around us. But there is a strange irony to all of this—an irony few people are willing to understand or acknowledge: the very tools people use to criticize Christianity are tools they owe to Christianity. This is the fascinating subject of Scrivener’s book. (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books | read my review)
The Men We Need: God’s Purpose for the Manly Man, the Avid Indoorsman, or Any Man Willing to Show Up by Brant Hansen. This is one of two books I read this year that deals with masculinity. And though I’m certain this has always been a crucial subject for Christian men, it must be particularly crucial right now when the society around us is both disparaging and seeking to overthrow all notions of masculinity. The Men We Need is not one of those books—those trite and cheesy books for men that focuses on a clichéd version of masculinity bound to a particular culture and a bygone century. Hansen isn’t advocating a form of masculinity that depends on swinging hammers, wrestling bears, or distributing swords. In fact, he says he’s not even capable of writing that book because “I don’t even hunt. I play the accordion. … I’m an avid indoorsman. I own puppets.” He advocates something far better, far purer, and far more biblical. (Buy it at Amazon | read my review)
Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution by Carl Trueman. Whatever else is true of the modern, Western world, this much is beyond dispute: It is not what it used to be. We have entered into a new world that is very different from the one that came before, a new world that in many ways feels so very strange. Many of us feel like immigrants who have inadvertently found ourselves in a new world and are learning to adapt to its new rules, its new norms, its new mores. Many of us are struggling to do so. Carl Trueman has studied the origins of these changes and written about them first in The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self and then in this more reader-friendly work. (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books | read my review)
Pure: Why the Bible’s Plan for Sexuality Isn’t Outdated, Irrelevant, or Oppressive by Dean Inserra. Do you remember the purity movement? Or perhaps it’s better to ask this: How could you possibly forget the purity movement? Though in many ways its aims were noble—sexual purity among teens and young adults—its methods were more than a little suspect and, in the long run, often even harmful. Dean Inserra witnessed this movement as an evangelical teen and this book is his analysis and response. It is a good and helpful book that insightfully analyzes the shortcomings of the purity movement and offers a much better, much more compelling, and much more biblically-grounded vision for singleness, dating, marriage, and sex. (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books | read my review)
Embracing Complementarianism: Turning Biblical Convictions into Positive Church Culture by Graham Beynon & Jane Tooher. My convictions of gender roles in church and family align with complementarianism—the view that God, while creating men and women equal in value and dignity, has ordained a kind of complementarity between them so that in the home and church men are to take a position of Christ-like leadership. But while I find the Bible leading me to complementarian convictions in a relatively straightforward way, what has been far more difficult is working out exactly what this looks like in real life. That’s the subject of this book, to promote a complentarianism that is faithful to God’s Word, that celebrates both the distinction and equality of the genders, and that frees both men and women to serve in all the ways God permits and invites them to. (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books | read my review)
The Manual: Getting Masculinity Right by Al Stewart. This is the second book on masculinity I read this year. It is well-documented that masculinity has fallen on hard times. In fact, when we hear it spoken of at all, it is most often with the word “toxic” preceding it. If not that, it is presenting a new form of masculinity that looks suspiciously like femininity. Society has many ways of disparaging masculinity but almost no good or healthy vision for it. Little wonder, then, that men are confused about what it means to be a man, to be manly, to be masculine. Into this void steps Stewart with his attempt to bring his self-described “crusty-old-bloke perspectives.” And, better, his drawn-from-the-Bible and good-old-fashioned-common-sense perspectives. It’s well worth a read. (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books | read my review)
Powerful Leaders?: When Church Leadership Goes Wrong And How to Prevent It by Marcus Honeysett. Over the past few years we have witnessed quite a number of leadership failures within the church. We have learned of pastors who have used their position to enrich themselves, to use their prominence to run roughshod over others, to use their prestige to feed their flesh. Some of these failures have been shocking, some almost expected. Some of these failures have been public, some very quiet. But each of them has, in its own way, been grievous and harmful. Each of them shows that, at times, leadership can go tragically wrong. Honeycutt’s book is about what happens when leadership goes wrong and how to prevent it. (Buy it at Amazon | read my review)
Retractions: Cultivating Humility After Humiliation by Pat Nemmers. We all have a few memories that cause us to cringe, memories of things we did or things we said that leave shame flooding our minds and little trickles of sweat running down our foreheads. Embarrassing things. Awkward things. Shameful things. Sinful things. Most of us do our best to push these memories away, to do all we can to get them out of our minds. But what if they can actually provide valuable lessons for our own lives and those of other people? Pat Nemmers’ book is meant to help us embrace these memories so we can allow them to grow in humility and serve others. (Buy it at Amazon | read my review)
Turnaround: The Remarkable Story of an Institutional Transformation and the 10 Essential Principles and Practices that Made It Happen by Jason Allen. For the past 10 years, since he was 35 years old, Allen has been the president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He took on the position at a time when the seminary was in grave peril—it was mired in controversy, burdened with debt, and financially upside-down. Its campus facilities were in a state of disrepair and its faculty undistinguished. Little wonder, then, that there was talk of closing it down. Today, though, MBTS is a thriving and world-class institution that is financially solvent, that has strong campus morale, that features some lovely new buildings, and that is the envy of many other seminaries. Under Allen’s leadership and through God’s kind providence it has experienced a significant turnaround—a turnaround that he uses to illustrate principles of Christian leadership. (Buy it at Amazon | read my review)
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A La Carte (September 28)
I have been asked to do quite a number of interviews recently and, as a courtesy to those who have invited me, wanted to link to some of them: Real Truth for Today (audio); Bible Gateway (written); Guilt Grace Gratitude (audio); LIFE Today (video).
The other day I mentioned that Westminster Books has launched a site specifically for kids’ books. They’ve done a great job of it and provide an explanation here.
Today’s Kindle deals include a few interesting books.
Progressive Views on Sexuality Will Ultimately Fail
Trevin Wax says, rightly, that “we’ll likely see more churches and denominations adopt the revisionist view of sexuality, but over time, the bankruptcy of this position will be evident.”
Two Hundred Years Ago, the Rosetta Stone Unlocked the Secrets of Ancient Egypt
This is a neat telling of the discovery and importance of the Rosetta Stone.
I Want to Be Baptized — My Husband Opposes It
John Piper answers a question from a woman who wants to be baptized, but whose husband is opposed.
A Lesson from Liz Cheney’s Loss
Kevin DeYoung: “This is not going to be a deep dive into electoral politics. That’s not my lane. But I do want to reflect on one lesson from Liz Cheney’s 37-point defeat in Wyoming’s Republican primary. I don’t say the lesson, because there are many, but a lesson, because I believe this is one cautionary tale that many of us in leadership would do well to consider.”
Moths & Beetles in Slow Motion Flight! (Video)
It never ceases to amaze me that, despite all our technological advancements, God’s designs are a million miles ahead of our own.
Finding Courage and Resolve When a Line In the Sand Demands It
“Sometimes lines happen between good and evil, right and wrong. Oftentimes those lines in the sand reveal who or what we worship. Always they bring opportunity to grow our faith.”
Flashback: Death to the One-Year Rule!
It’s a sad reality that at times a man will need to be removed from his ministry. When that happens, we do well to carefully consider the unwritten “one-year rule” and whether it will be helpful or harmful. A year may be a long time, but as often as not, it will not be long enough.Calvary supplied the most solemn and awe-inspiring display of God’s hatred of sin that time or eternity will ever furnish. —A.W. Pink
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A La Carte (June 13)
Good morning from … Canada at last. I’m back home after making the overnight journey from São Paulo. As always, it’s good to be home.
Today’s Kindle deals include mostly books that are meant for pastors and academics.
(Yesterday on the blog: At the Center of All Things)
The Sick Love of Controversy
This is a helpful episode of Ask Pastor John in which he addresses those who have a love of controversy.
The Assignment I Wasn’t Expecting
Andrea Sanborn explains and celebrates the assignment she was not expecting.
Who Was Robert Jermain Thomas?
This account of the life and martyrdom of Robert Jermain Thomas is well told.
Southern Baptists Are Both Missional and Confessional: A Response to Rick Warren
“Baptists today should be quick to point out the irony of Bible-only-ism, but in some quarters, the opposite has been the case. The myth of Baptist anticreedalism has recently been resuscitated by Rick Warren, who implores fellow Southern Baptists to ‘return to the original Baptist Vision of unity through a mission, not a confession.’ According to Warren, ‘That would heal the SBC.’” (See also: Have Southern Baptists Ever Been More Divided?)
Your Church May Be More Diverse Than You Think
I appreciate this take on diversity in the local church.
What We Regard as Little
“Do you know that feeling when you get to the other side of a crisis and once you finish basking in the way everything held together, you wonder what it will take to recover your tight-fisted grip on the faithfulness of God that sustained you through your trial? It’s an odd mashup of realizations and recalibrations. It’s one part relief that the trial is over, one part loosening your death grip on what it took to survive.”
Flashback: It’s Not a Blind Faith
Will I trust God even when the way is unclear and even when I do not understand? Will I joyfully submit to God’s will, knowing and trusting that he is good?We must never cease to pray for our children until they cease to breathe. No case is hopeless while Jesus lives. —Charles Spurgeon
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Richer Blood Than Ours
De Witt Talmage was considered a great preacher in his day, though it is rare to see him quoted or referenced in modern times. Still, I have benefited a lot by reading his sermons, and perhaps especially one he preached on Isaiah 52:3. He preached it at a time when many were objecting to the notion of atonement and to the necessity of an atonement of blood. Here is a brief, beautiful excerpt. It’s well worth reading it aloud.
Money is good for a great many things, but it can not do anything in this matter of the soul. You can not buy your way through. Dollars and pounds sterling mean nothing at the gate of mercy. If you could buy your salvation, heaven would be a great speculation, an extension of Wall Street. Bad men would go up and buy out the place, and leave us to shift for ourselves. But as money is not a lawful tender, what is?
I will answer: Blood! Whose? Are we to go through the slaughter? Oh, no; it wants richer blood than ours. It wants a king’s blood. It must be poured from royal arteries. It must be a sinless torrent.
But where is the king? I see a great many thrones and a great many occupants, yet none seem to be coming down to the rescue.
But after a while the clock of night in Bethlehem strikes twelve, and the silver pendulum of a star swings across the sky, and I see the King of Heaven rising up, and He descends, and steps down from star to star, and from cloud to cloud, lower and lower, until He touches the sheep-covered hills, and then on to another hill, this last skull-covered, and there, at the sharp stroke of persecution, a rill incarnadine trickles down, and we who could not be redeemed by money are redeemed by precious and imperial blood.
