The best new books I’ve read in the last 30 days are listed below.
- (5.0) Only Work Sundays: A Laidback Guide to Doing Less while Helping Your Church Thrive by Liz Miller (Pilgrim Press, 2023)
- (4.5) King: A Life by Jonathan Eig (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023)
- (4.5) The Word Made Fresh: Preaching God’s Love for Every Body by George A. Mason (Front Edge Publishing, 2023)
- *4.5) The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams by Seth Godin (Portfolio / Penguin, 2023)
- (4.0) Walking With Sam: A Father, A Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy (Grand Central, 2023)
- (4.0) Ancient Echoes: Refusing the Fear-Filled Greed-Driven Toxicity of the Far Right by Walter Brueggemann (Fortress Press, 2023)
- (4.0) We Are All Witnesses: Toward Disruptive and Creative Biblical Interpretation by Mitzi J. Smith and Michael Willett Newheart (Cascade Books, 2023)
- (3.5) Hidden Genius: The Secret Ways of Thinking that Power the World’s Most Successful People by Polina Marinova Pompliano (Harriman House, 2023)
Only Work Sundays
Pastoring local congregations is rewarding yet challenging work. In recent years there has been considerable reporting on pastor burnout and the unreasonable expectations placed on many clergy as COVID-19 transitions from pandemic to endemic. Liz Miller, a Millennial United Church of Christ pastor who recently concluded seven years of service as the pastor of Edgewood United Church, shares her own experience about what it is like to do ministry in a local congregation in ways that are often described as laidback, that honor the idea of shared leadership (for more on this check out Sharing Leadership: A United Church of Christ Way of Being in Community by Sarah B. Drummond – rated 4.5 here on So What Faith in 2022), and that can be both effective and sustainable. Miller’s story is authentic and her book might just be the resource you need to encourage you to refine your approach to ministry.
Welcome Back
Walter Brueggemann has authored nearly 150 books. Over the last decade, I read and rated 5 here on So What Faith:
- (5.0) Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now (July 2014)
- (4.5) Materiality as Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (March 2020)
- (4.5) Interrupting Silence: God’s Command to Speak Out (April 2018)
- (4.5) Truth Speaks to Power: The Countercultural Nature of Scripture (April 2013)
- (4.0) Virus as a Summons to Faith: Biblical Reflections in a Time of Loss, Grief and Uncertainty (June 2020)
While I did not review any of the 20 books Seth Godin’s wrote prior to The Song of Significance, Godin has appeared on So What Faith several times thanks to his short-form writing and speaking. Examples include
- How Ideas Spread (November 2010)
- Hurry Up & Be Generous (December 2012)
- Ministry: More or Better? (September 2014)