Top Ten Books I read in 2017 and highly recommend for your reading in 2018

I spend as much time reading as I can. I don't read fast anymore. Mostly slow, reflective, and way too much musing on the author's thoughts sending me into my own streams on consciousness. There are a few books on working on now that don't make this list and a few "on the table" to start, which I feel have the makings of important books for me to read or finish reading (see the up-coming post on "What's On My Table to Read in 2018").

The order is arbitrary and does not suggest which is the #1 or #10. Nor of these books the only ones I read in 2017; but they are the ones that have most impacted my thinking, challenged my Christianity (really my attachment to christendom), and motivated me toward church ministry and being faithful in my call as a church planter in the Hill community of New Haven, CT.

I highly recommend these books for your 2018 reading . . .

---

Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community by Brett McCracken

Aliens in the Promised Land: Why Minority Leadership Is Overlooked in White Christian Churches and Institutions edited by Anthony B. Bradley

The Power of Proximity: Moving Beyond Awareness to Action by Michelle Ferrigno Warren

Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time by Sarah Ruden

Exclusion and Judgment in Fellowship Meals: The Socio-historical Background of 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 by Lanuwabang Jamir

Subversive Meals: An Analysis of the Lord's Supper under Roman Domination during the First Century by R. Alan Streett

Money and Possessions by Walter Brueggemann

Race and Place: How Urban Geography Shapes the Journey to Reconciliation by David P. Leong

Place Matters: The Church for the Community by Coz Crosscombe and Bill Krispin

​The Letter to Philemon (New International Commentary on the New Testament) by Scot McKnight

---

I am the author of ​Wasted Evangelism: Social Action and the Church's Task of Evangelism, a deep, exegetical read into the Gospel of Mark. All royalties from this book go to support our church planting ministry in the Hill community of New Haven, CT. The book and its e-formats can be found on Amazon, Barns'n Nobel, (and most other online book distributors) or through the publisher, Wipf & Stock directly.