For the last ten years I’ve published an annual list of my top ten books published each year. While these lists have been alphabetical rather than in rank order, they’ve also included mention of two books from each list that had the greatest impact on me that year. Over the last decade that adds up to 20 books that have significantly impacted me.
| Author | Title | Year |
| Diana Butler Bass | Christianity After Religion: The End of the Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening | 2012 |
| Marcus Borg | Days of Awe and Wonder | 2017 |
| Ron Clark | Move Your Bus: An Extraordinary New Approach to Accelerating Success in Work and Life R | 2015 |
| Mark Chaves | American Religion: Contemporary Trends | 2011 |
| John Dorhauer | Beyond Resistance: The Institutional Church Meets the Postmodern World | 2015 |
| Lenny Duncan | Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination | 2019 |
| Galen Guengerich | God Revised: How Religion Must Evolve in a Scientific Age | 2013 |
| James Davison Hunter | To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, & Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World | 2010 |
| Robert P. Jones | The End of White Christian America | 2016 |
| David Kinnaman | You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church . . . And Rethinking Faith | 2011 |
| Michael Kinnamon | The Witness of Religion in an Age of Fear | 2017 |
| John R. Mabry | Faithful Generations: Effective Ministry Across Generational Lines | 2013 |
| Scot McKnight | One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow | 2010 |
| Barbara Melosh | Loving and Leaving a Church: A Pastor’s Journey | 2018 |
| Wesley Granberg-Michaelson | Future Faith: Ten Challenges Reshaping Christianity in the 21st Century | 2018 |
| John Philip Newell | The Rebirthing of God: Christianity’s Struggle for New Beginnings | 2014 |
| Stephen Prothero | Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections): The Battles That Define America from Jefferson’s Heresies to Gay Marriage | 2016 |
| Efrem Smith | The Post-Black & Post-White Church: Becoming the Beloved Community in a Multi-Ethnic World | 2012 |
| Barbara Brown Taylor | Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others | 2019 |
| Paul Taylor | The Next America: Boomers, Millennials, and the Looming Generational Showdown | 2014 |
Top Five
I found it impossible to select just two books from among these twenty. The following five books, however, have had the most significant impact on me and on my ministry.
| Author | Title | Year |
| Diana Butler Bass | Christianity After Religion: The End of the Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening | 2012 |
| Mark Chaves | American Religion: Contemporary Trends | 2011 |
| John Dorhauer | Beyond Resistance: The Institutional Church Meets the Postmodern World | 2015 |
| Robert P. Jones | The End of White Christian America | 2016 |
| Barbara Brown Taylor | Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others | 2019 |