Best Christian Books for 2022

The Best Christian books I read in 2021 for reading recommendations for 2022

Readers are leaders” they tell us, so I’ve sought to build a habit of reading for an hour a day. I don’t always get there, so I don’t beat myself up if I miss a day or two. I simply try to get back at it the following day. Along with a Bible reading plant hat takes me through the Scriptures in a year, here are my top 5 books I read in 2021 that I can highly recommend along with a quote from each book.

First, I have three honorable mention books that didn’t quite crack my top 5.

"Leading with Emotional Courage" by Peter Bregman https://amzn.to/3Fhp0v5. Bregman is one of my supervisor’s favorite authors, so don’t tell him this is only getting an honorable mention! Bregman challenges leaders “how to have hard conversations, create accountability, and inspire action on your most important work.”

"Holy Sexuality and the Gospel" Christopher Yuan https://amzn.to/3Hdsu2v. Christopher Yuan shares his story of coming to Christ out of the LGBTQ+ community with an atheistic background after his mother faithfully prayed for him for years. The subtitle here is, “Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story.”

"Love Your God with all your Mind" J.P. Moreland https://amzn.to/3Ein98c. Moreland challnegs Christians to take their faith seriously, turn off the TV, and “study to show yourself approved” (2 Timothy 2:15). The subtitle here is, “The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul.”

Now for my top 5 in descending order.

Gary Collins wrote the book on “Christian Coaching”

#5 "Christian Coaching" by Gary Collins https://amzn.to/3Ebp91G. If you want to change your paradigm for discipleship, then check out the topic of Christian coaching. It’s a growing field within the church. Discipleship, counseling, or mentoring, are often focussed on the discipler as the expert and teacher who gives advice and tells their “pupil” what action steps to implement. Coaching takes a different perspective. While counseling is often backward focussed to address issues of brokeness in the past to get the person to a greater place of health, coaching is for those who are healthy and ready to move forward and focuses on the future.

“A coach is someone trained and devoted to guiding others into increased competence, commitment, and confidence” (Christian Coaching, Gary Collins). One of my major takeaways from this book is helping those I minister to grow in their awareness of their strengths and goals through question asking and active listening. It’s helped me to guide them into creating their own action plans, rather than directing their goals myself. Those we minister to are much more likely to put action in place when they are the ones deciding on the direction.

Peter Scazzero talks about his journey to emotional health in his book “The Emotionally Healthy Leader.”

#4 "The Emotionally Healthy Leader" Peter Scazzero https://amzn.to/3miq7Dv. If we are seeing outward indicators of success, everything must be great with the leader, right? “It has become part of our default thinking that external markers of success are an indication that all must certainly be well at the leadership level.” “But look at the fruit” was the constant justification to explain away questionable character in the Mars Hills church debacle. Character matters and emotional health is critical for leaders to last and thrive.

Scazzero talks about his own journey from overwork and constantly saying “yes” to every opportunity and the toll that was taking on his marriage. Ministry is a job that is never done, so how can a leader find margin, prioritize his/her own walk with God, and find a sustainable pace that serves as a model for those in his care? I’m thankful that my leadership prioritizes our emotional health. I have a long way to go, and this book is loaded with great insights about taking the journey.

Should Christians join the “Social Justice” movement, or is God’s justice distinct? Thaddeus Williams answers these qustions in his book “Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth.”

#3 "Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth" by Thaddeus Williams https://amzn.to/3e7BLwh. If you are unsure what the Biblical response is to the divisions we see in our day in the areas of justice, poverty, race, and politics, enter Thaddeus Williams book with 12 questions we should be asking. I’ve always wondered how the church has found itself parroting the same narrative that is driven by the atheists in our culture. If this is the case, it’s a good sign that we have strayed from true Biblical justice.

But it is possible to fight for Biblical justice and not compromise the truth of God’s Word. “The problem of injustice is a God-sized problem. If we don’t start with him first, whatever we’re seeking, it ain’t justice.” Christians should be leading the way in fighting for justice in our world today. We cannot hide in our churches and shelter ourselves in a Christian bubble. This book provides a challenge to me to grow in my understanding of Biblical justice, and to be about seeing these changes in our world today.

In “The Great Sex Rescue” sheila Gergoire seeks to rescue us from the lies that we have been taught from purity culture and to recover what God has intended for true Biblical sexuality.

#2 "The Great Sex Rescue" by Sheila Gregoire https://amzn.to/3J6Dlg4. I first heard about Sheila Gregoire’s book “The Great Sex Rescue” from a series of tweets that she put out in the wake of the Ravi Zacharias scandal as she addressed some of the lies about sexuality that were in the church that could lead to such a scandal. One example was the lie that Ravi’s wife must not have been available enough which is why he fell into this serious sin. Unfortunately, I had already seen a number of people use that line of thinking to explain a sexual abuse scandal in the church!

If you want to grow in your understanding of Biblical sexuality, want to see your marital sexual intimacy improve, or feel a sense of confusion from the lies of our culture on sex, this book is for you! In fact, I like it so much, I’m planning to make a series about it on YouTube.

Samuel Perry researched conservative protestant Christians and our response to the issue of pornography in his book, “Addicted to Lust.”

#1 "Addicted to Lust" Samuel Perry https://amzn.to/3yGXjcu. If you’ve ever felt like someone was reading your mail, that’s the feeling I got from reading Samuel Perry’s book, “Addicted to Lust.” As a non-Christian religion professor, Perry studied Christianity’s response to the issue of pornography. I found out he had even attended one of the major conferences I went to on the topic, the “Set Free Summit.”

Perry has an out of the box take on the issue of porn among Christians. He examined how we communicate about the issue, how that has changed with a greater prevalence of porn, and what actually works to help Christians find freedom from porn addiction. I made an entire series about this book on YouTube.

If you want to see the data on pornography in the church, examine some of the lies we are communicating about the issue (example: women don’t struggle with lust), and pursue data driven recovery methods, this book is for you! He interviewed hundreds of Christians, some currently or formerly addicted to porn, along with Pastors and counselors in creating his research.

What were your favorite books this year?