Steve Murrell's Blog, page 29

My Top 10 Books of 2021

Every December, I post a list of the top ten books I read the previous twelve months—not necessarily the best or most popular books, but books that impacted my life and ministry, books that stretched my faith and restored my soul, books that made me think deeply and lead wisely, and books that helped me honor God and make disciples.

My goal is to encourage leaders to become readers.

Someone (I can’t remember who) from my earliest days in vocational ministry in the 1980s said this quote that has been stuck in my head: “If we want to think great thoughts, we must first read great books.” It was a long time ago, so that might not be the exact quote, but I still stand by the basic idea that if we want to “think like a leader,” we must be a reader.

Thankfully, between my Kindle app—which enables me to carry hundreds of books everywhere I go—and audible.com (and similar services)—which empowers me to “read” while driving—reading has become more convenient than ever.

Without further ado, here’s my list of ten books that impacted my life and leadership in 2021.

1. Art + Faith: A Theology of Makingby Makoto Fujimura

If you love great art and sound theology, the creative process and thinking outside the box, and learning and making, then you’ll love Art + Faith.

Probably my favorite book of 2021, I found myself reading then rereading paragraph after paragraph so as not to miss a single word Fujimura wrote. It shows Japanese minimalism at its finest. Like I often do when I discover a great book, I have given away at least a dozen copies of Art + Faith.

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, how we view the world, how we educate, and how we value ourselves have been all about purposeful efficiency. But such bottom-line utilitarian pragmatism has caused a split in how we view creativity and making. To what purpose, we ask, are we making? If the answer to that question is “we make to be useful” then we will value only what is most efficient, what is practical and industrial. The thesis that undergirds the entire culture care project, and the Theology of Making, is an antidote to such utilitarian pragmatism: the essence of humanity under God is not just utility and practical applications; the essence of humanity may be in what we deem to be “use-less” but essential.

View book here →

2. Word & Spirit: Truth, Power, and the Next Great Move of Godby R.T. Kendall

The Kentucky-born, Oxford-trained theologian has written over fifty books, and in my opinion, Word & Spirit might be his most important. After pastoring London’s Westminister Chapel for twenty-five years, R.T. “retired” in the USA. Earlier this year, I had the privilege of having lunch with R.T. then hung out in his West Nashville apartment for a few hours. What a gift to learn from such a legend, who is still preaching and writing at eighty-seven years old! R.T. is equally passionate about God’s Word AND God’s Spirit. We never have to choose one or the other, it is always BOTH.

Merely to preach doctrine, however accurate that teaching might be, would not be enough. My mentor, Dr. Lloyd-Jones, used to slap the wrists of those “sound” preachers who were “perfectly orthodox, perfectly useless.” In a word: we need not only the Scriptures but also the power of God. It is the conscious power of God that (surely) every preacher wants.

View book here →

3. Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formationby James K.A. Smith

I have found that I am a better preacher, leader, and human when I read or reread at least one James K.A. Smith book each year. May his books have the same effect on you.

The core claim of this book is that liturgies—whether “sacred” or “secular”—shape and constitute our identities by forming our most fundamental desires and our most basic attunement to the world. In short, liturgies make us certain kinds of people, and what defines us is what we love.

View book here →

4. For the Body: Recovering a Theology of Gender, Sexuality, and the Human Bodyby Timothy C. Tennent

For those who actually do ministry (as opposed to “thought leaders” who strategize, theorize, and live in an ideation doom loop), this might be the most important theology book you will read this year. As a missiologist and the president of Asbury Theological Seminary, Dr. Tennent’s approach to gender and sexuality is both theologically robust and missiologically compassionate.

The church has failed to understand that these seemingly disparate issues (same-sex marriage, gender reassignment, digital pornography, abortion) are actually manifestations of a single root problem—namely, our failure to articulate a Christian view of the body.

View book here →

5. Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hopeby Esau McCaulley

Dr. McCaulley, assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, has provided the Church with a timely, unique, and important perspective on Scripture interpretation (a.k.a. hermeneutics). There is much to learn from McCaulley’s book, even if you are not an American or an African American. The cross-cultural hermeneutics principles are universal. Hopefully, the quote below will inspire leaders from every nation, every culture, and every ethnos to write and publish.

In my evangelical seminary almost all the authors we read were white men. It was as if all the important conversations about the Bible began when the Germans started to take the text apart, and the Bible lay in tatters until the evangelicals came to put it back together again. I learned the contours of the debate between British evangelicals and German liberals. It seemed that whatever was going on among Black Christians had little to do with real biblical interpretation. I swam in this disdain, and even when I rejected it vocally, the doubt seeped into my subconscious.

View book here →

6. One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race and Loveby John M. Perkins

Published in 2018, One Blood was supposed to be the fourteenth and final book by the civil rights legend. (Until He Calls Me Friend: The Healing Power of Friendship in a Lonely World appeared in 2019.)

I’m eighty-seven years old. I’ve lived a long life, and I’m full of gratitude for the opportunities that I’ve had to serve a wise, merciful, almighty God. I’m continually in awe of how far He has brought me, a poor boy from Mississippi with only a third-grade education. I grew up in a sharecropping family in Mississippi and dropped out of school between the third and fifth grade. Yet, by God’s grace, I’ve lectured at world-renowned universities and received honorary doctorates. My older brother Clyde, who served his country in the Army in World War II, was shot and killed by a deputy marshal soon after returning home. I have been spat upon and brutally beaten by police. Yet, by God’s grace, I’ve worked tirelessly to help build good relations between local police and urban communities. I’ve ministered in country towns, inner cities, and before large crowds. I’ve traveled across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. I’ve had the privilege of teaching wide-eyed emerging leaders as well as foggy-eyed accomplished pioneers. All of this . . . by His amazing grace.

View book here →

7. Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless Worldby Tara Isabella Burton

Highly recommended by William Murrell, I found Burton’s research to be both disturbing and hopeful. While American engagement in traditional Christ-centered, Bible-based Christianity is certainly waining, spirituality and “faith” are alive and well, but woefully misguided. People are searching for meaning, community, and spiritual experiences, but not in institutional religious settings. 

Americans are not abandoning religion but remixing it. In search of the deep and the real, they are finding meaning, purpose, ritual, and communities in ever-newer, ever-stranger ways.

This reality gives me hope and provokes me to do life and ministry in a way that honors Jesus and makes disciples.

View book here →

8. Christian Mission: A Concise Global Historyby Edward L. Smither

If you always wanted to read Kenneth Scott Latourette’s two-volume church history, but either got intimidated or couldn’t find time to read 1500+ pages, then Smither is your new best friend. His “concise” history is just as promised—concise.

Like Latourette before him, Smither focuses on global expansion, particularly on the world reaching the world as opposed to the West reaching the rest. If you only read one church history book, read this one. If reading Smither causes greater hunger for more church history, then I highly recommend Latourette’s two-volume series—A History of Christianity: Beginnings to 1500 and A History of Christianity: Reformation to the Present.

View book here →

9. The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Businessby Erin Meyer

While not a religious book, Meyer’s work can seamlessly be applied to any cross-cultural ministry endeavor. Therefore, I highly recommend it to every vocational minister in Every Nation. If only I knew then (1984) what I now know after reading this book (2021), I could have avoided countless cross-cultural mistakes. Besides ministry, this book is essential for anyone in a cross-cultural marriage.

For an example, just think for a minute about the histories of the two bookend countries on the scale, the United States and Japan. High-context cultures tend to have a long shared history. Usually they are relationship-oriented societies where networks of connections are passed on from generation to generation, generating more shared context among community members. Japan is an island society with a homogeneous population and thousands of years of shared history, during a significant portion of which Japan was closed off from the rest of the world. Over these thousands of years, people became particularly skilled at picking up each other’s messages—reading the air, as Takaki said. By contrast, the United States, a country with a mere few hundred years of shared history, has been shaped by enormous inflows of immigrants from various countries around the world, all with different histories, different languages, and different backgrounds. Because they had little shared context, Americans learned quickly that if they wanted to pass a message, they had to make it as explicit and clear as possible, with little room for ambiguity and misunderstanding.

View book here →

10. Spirit-Empowered Prayer: Partnering with God in Advancing His Kingdomby Manny Carlos and Walter Walker

I first started working with Manny Carlos in ministry long before he earned the titles of Bishop of Victory and a Doctor of Ministry. When he left a promising career at CitiBank to join the Victory pastoral team, Manny was a humble scholar with a passion to know and serve Jesus. With all his ministry accomplishments, he remains a humble scholar with a passion to know and serve Jesus. A few years ago at our annual Every Nation Global Office strategic planning meeting, we recognized the need for an Every Nation global leader to write a book on prayer that would instruct and inspire believers all over the world to seek God in prayer and fasting at a deeper level. As soon as we recognized that need, there was only one person on the short list to write that book: Manny Carlos. With the help of Walter Walker, Manny has written a book that I believe will serve the global church for decades. This is not only a book to read but a book to pray through over and over again.

When the Holy Spirit inspires and empowers one’s prayer life, it often becomes shockingly informal and unashamedly bold.

View book here →

I hope this post inspires you to read a wide variety of authors and topics. And, for some of you, may it inspire you to write. Maybe one day your book will make the list!

Here are some previous lists: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016.

Top 5 Snubs of 2021: Really good books I read or reread in 2021 that almost made the list—until they didn’t. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels  by Kenneth E. Bailey You Are Not Your Own Belonging to God in an Inhuman World  by Alan Noble The Testament by John Grisham (In my honest opinion, by far the best of Grisham’s 40+ novels.) Who God Is: Meditations on the Character of Our God  by Ben Witherington III Bruchko  by Bruce Olsen (One of the best missionary biographies ever!)

Who Do You Listen To?

Church: Grace Covenant Church

Flying Horses & Transformational Discipleship

Church:  Bethel World Outreach Church

The Christmas Mission

One of the clearest articulations I’ve ever heard about the meaning of Christmas comes from an unlikely conversation between an angel and some shepherds. I say “unlikely” because most people don’t have conversations with angels, and shepherds usually aren’t the first recipients of world-changing news.

However, in Luke’s gospel, we get to overhear one of the most bizarre and consequential conversations in all of history—one that clarifies the meaning of Christmas and the mission of the church.

First, the angel brings “good news of great joy”—that today has been born a “Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10–11).

Next, the angel articulates the mission of the shepherds (and the church). This good news is “for all the people” (Luke 2:10). Every socioeconomic group. Every nation. And every generation. And it’s our mission to spread this good news to the ends of the earth.

What’s Shaping Your Life?

What is forming you? Are you being informed by Scripture or something else?

Whether we realize it or not, we are all being shaped by forces around us every moment of the day—the books that we read, the TV that we watch, the podcasts that we listen to, the news that we hear, the social media posts that we scroll through, etc. As we go through life, we are inevitably shaped by the voices and perspectives that we allow in. That’s why wisdom about what we consume and value is critical.

Today, we’re going to look at Psalm 1 in the context of discipleship and leadership development to see how we can apply its wisdom to this important part of our lives.

Buying a Stairway to Heaven

Bad theology makes ministry feel like we are working for God in order to earn his love, favor, and approval. The work-for-God mentality is one reason many ministry leaders feel like pack animals.

On the edge of the burnout cliff, we schedule a weekly sabbath to rest but feel burdened the next day. We schedule an annual vacation and return exhausted. In desperation, we try a multi-month sabbatical and return to a mountain of urgent work that requires multiple 70-hour work-weeks to catch up. (NOTE: I highly recommend a weekly day off and an annual vacation, but without good theology, the burdens will feel heavier.)

Today’s text, Matthew 11:27–30, offers a spiritual solution to the heavy burdens that are carried by vocational ministers.

Mission Expansion

As the COVID pandemic begins to recede in many communities, I have had a lot of conversations about what it looks like to regather in local churches. Pastors are talking about what sermons their people need to hear and what measures they need to take to ensure safety. These are all important conversations that require wisdom and discernment.

However, one point that could get lost in these conversations is the importance of (re)sending our people on mission. We all need to be reminded that after we gather together to worship, we are then sent on mission to be witnesses to our neighbors and to the nations.

In this video, I look at Acts 13 and identify three principles of mission expansion:

It starts in the church.It happens when we listen to the Holy Spirit.It is multiplication by subtraction.

As We Go

“You’re not as ready as you think you are, and Jesus doesn’t care.”

A few weeks ago, I wrote that line down as I studied the story of Jesus and the seventy-two disciples in Luke 9 and 10. That message—that no one is as ready as they need to be to walk into ministry—is one that I would like to hear more leaders say and think concerning emerging leaders. Unfortunately, many do not.

In this passage, we see that Jesus sends people who quite clearly aren’t totally ready. Why? What does he understand that we don’t?

Today’s message is about Jesus sending the seventy-two where he was about to go and where people desperately needed to hear his message.

Preach the Word

Q: What makes something preaching? How is a sermon different than a lecture or a motivational speech?

A: The context (worship service) and the content (Word of God).

When someone gives a motivational speech or lecture, he or she might use a Bible verse to support their point. In preaching we start with the Bible, then use our experience and ideas to clarify, emphasize, and illustrate God’s Word.

As pastors and campus missionaries, it’s important for us to see ourselves as preachers—not motivational speakers, presenters, or content creators. When we see ourselves as preachers, we are freed from the expectations of our audience and freed to focus on hearing from God and faithfully preaching that Word to his people.

What Is the Job of a Pastor?

What is at the core of what any pastor or spiritual leader should do? What is our essential job in ministry? What is the job of a pastor?

In John 18:19–21, Jesus provides us with the perfect example of what our ministry should look like. Two key words stand out to me when I read this passage: doctrine and disciples.

Jesus was clear about doctrine, and he was purposeful about discipleship. More in today’s short message.