During the last month I managed to work through a good deal of what was left on my list of books I hoped to read by the end of the year. Ratings (on a scale of 1 to 5) follow.
- (5+) Churchless: Understanding Today’s Unchurched and How to Connect with Them by Barna Group with George Barna and David Kinnaman as editors (2014)
- (5) Overrated: Are We More in Love with the Idea of Changing the World than Actually Changing the World by Eugene Cho (2014)
- (5) Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive by Thom S. Rainer (2014)
- (5) Core Elements of the Appreciative Way: An Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry for Work and Daily Living by Robert J. Voyle and Kim M. Voyle (2006)
- (5) Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong (2014)
- (4.5) Blessed are the Crazy: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness, Family and Church by Sarah Griffith Lund (2014)
- (4.5) Reading the Parables (a part of the Interpretation series) by Richard Lischer (2014)
- (4) Temporary Shepherds: A Congregational Handbook for Interim Ministry edited by Roger Nicholson (1998)
- (4) The Zizum of Love: A New Way of Understanding Marriage by Rob Bell and Kristen Bell (2014)
- (4) Dataclysm: Who We Are When We Think No One is Looking by Christian Rudder (2014)
- (4) Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense by Francis Spufford (2014)
- (4) God Without Religion: Can it Really Be This Simple? by Andrew Farley (2011)
- (3) Your Divine Fingerprint: The Force that Makes You Unstoppable by Keith Craft (2014)
- (2.5) Unwelcome: 50 Ways Churches Drive Away First-Time Visitors by Jonathan Malm (2014)
So What?
Since starting this blog in 2009, this has been the first year I have not written many book reviews. Because I chose to say “yes” to a number of other opportunities, I have primarily limited my book sharing here to ratings and a few remarks. In some respects providing a numeric rating is just as challenging, though thankfully not as time consuming. Since we have just a month left in the year the time has come to begin working on my annual list of top books of the year (those published in 2014).
Please let me know the best book you have read that was published this year. If it is not a volume I have already read, I may well try to slip it in before the year ends.