The best new books I’ve read in the last 30 days are listed below.
- (5.0) Serving Money, Serving God: Aligning Radical Justice, Christian Practice, and Church Life by Sheryl Johnson (Fortress Press, 2023)
- (4.5) A Minor Revolution: How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All by Adam Benforado (Crown, 2023)
- (4.5) Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves by Mark Wingfield (Fortress Press, 2023)
- (4.0) Turning Donors Into Partners: Principles for Fundraising You’ll Actually Enjoy by Brad Layland (InterVarsity Press, 2023)
- (4.0) Post-Traumatic Jesus: A Healing Gospel for the Wounded by David W. Peters (Westminster John Knox Press, 2023)
- (4.0) Orphaned Believers: How a Generation of Christian Exiles Can Find The Way Home by Sara Billups (BakerBooks, 2023)
- (3.5) Jesus v. Evangelicals: A Biblical Critique of a Wayward Movement by Constantine R. Campbell (Zondervan Reflective, 2022)
- (2.5) Religions on Trial: A Lawyer Examines Buddhism, Hinduism, and More by W. Mark Lanier (InterVarsity Press, 2023)
Serving Money, Serving God
Marketed as “the first Christian stewardship and finance book written from an explicitly anti-racist, decolonial, feminist, ecological, and class-critical standpoint,” Serving Money, Serving God invites readers to rethink the church’s relationship with money. In many progressive Christian congregations, the commitment to social justice and to being guided more by the Way of Jesus than by capitalism has infused all aspects of ministry and mission except finances. Sheryl Johnson, an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada with dual standing in the United Church of Christ, offers numerous examples of how congregations have charted a new path. Emphasizing that there is no “one size fits all” approach, she encourages congregational leaders to summon the courage to live out their theological convictions.