Reddit mentions: The best christian pastoral resources books

>I know it's an acquired taste. I've just not had the time, energy, care, or money to acquire taste for anything good... or anything at all.

Don't listen. I think I'm a fairly good writer (I paid most of my way through college by winning essay contests; I majored in English), and I drink very infrequently, like probably 5-6 times a year, and am fairly certain that I have never been legally intoxicated. Find your inspiration elsewhere

)

>What would you recommend for a 20-something college student trying to attain basic biblical literacy.

Hmmm. Um, well, first, I'd do a pretty good survey read of the text. I think everyone who flies the flag of "Christian" should, at a bare minimum, be familiar with Genesis, Exodus, 1Samuel-2Kings, Isaiah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1+2 Corinthians, and Hebrews.

If that's out of the way, I really liked Luke Timothy Johnson's introduction to the NT. It is suitable for a college student who does not know Greek. For the OT, which isn't my wheelhouse, I'd look into Walter Brueggemann's introduction.

Before you plunk down your hard earned college student dollars though, iTunes University has a number of free courses available from seminaries (usually more conservative ones; sadly PTS, YDS, Duke, etc. aren't down for sharing for the betterment of the Gospel) and universities, which can provide very good information, for free. For example, Yale University's course on the New Testament is available as a free recording. While that's going to be secular and focused on critical scholarship, it should give you a lot of info about the book.

Finally, however, if you're after more than just knowledge, I can't recommend enough Eugene Peterson's Eat This Book, which really changed my view on a series of documents that I had devoted years to digging into. In fact, if you'd like, PM me your address and I'll Amazon you a copy.

I get it. You want evidence. We've already been over this.

I had not heard of how the null hypothesis and how it relates to Van Til's arguments (at least, named that specifically), but as I suspected as soon as I started reading about it, the writers who relate the two show a complete misunderstanding of presuppositionalism in the first place, to a laughable level. It's as if they read the title of the book and the introduction and then went off as if they were experts. What you and many atheists seem to not-so-ironically miss is the fact that the name "presuppositionalism", as well as "the God of the Gaps", are both intentional misnomers given by apologetics meant to poke fun at those who don't actually understand the arguments. In other words, the apologetics are indeed playing word games with you, and in your ignorance you fell for it hook, line and sinker. Dutcher actually did a similar thing recently in a book he wrote about Calvanism, and of course hilariously people got up in arms about it.

I had actually come to the revelation of the transcendental argument on my own many years ago through my own reasoning and introspection, it was only later after studying philosophy that I learned that others had seen the same thing and put a names to it. Naturally I was initially put off by presuppositionalism just because of the name. Now of course I realize how clever it actually is.

> We can measure knowledge, we can see the effects in CAT scans, we can remove parts of the brain and people lose knowledge in certain areas and even change personalities. You didn't like my definition of knowledge either, that is why you shoehorned the classical definition in the argument. Again, my definition of knowledge is the sum input of our human senses translated by our brains into neural network patterns. Completely physical.

One of the problems that naturalists like to ignore is the fact that they arbitrarily throw words like "knowledge", "mind", and especially "observe" without pondering or understanding what they're actually saying. We know what observation is because we experience it. We all "presuppose" that this abstract thing called observation takes place, but it's not something you can easily define, especially in a naturalistic sense. When you define logic in a physical sense, it's really nothing more than a reaction to a force. Memory is not much more than evidence of past forces. When you look at things like knowledge, memory, or observation in a strictly naturalistic sense, you can't really differentiate between the activities in a human brain and, lets say, erosion. It's a deterministic worldview, it leaves no room for intentions or free will because my thoughts and actions are really just governed by physics. Additionally, that still leaves you in the realms of pantheism because then these subjective things like knowledge, intention, qualia, etc are nothing more than energy in motion. Where that leads the atheist is to try to either isolate the subjective to "the human brain", or deny that the subjective exists altogether. The latter is immediately debunked through direct introspection, the former is at best idealism and at worse solipsism. Still then, you have to account for the fact that the universal laws of nature facilitate qualia, or in other words, you're still stuck with a higher order of subjective qualities regardless of how you try to break it down.

So, at the core of our universe and all truth is observation. Incidentally, the qualities one would require to be called an "observer" aren't that far off from qualities you would assign to God. This is what is meant in the Word when it is said that we are created in God's image. For me personally, I found it quite miraculous that all these complex philosophical issues such as observation and free will (that really haven't been public discourse until relatively recently) are all explained in Genesis, evidently written thousands of years ago by some sheep herders who claimed to be divinely inspired. Of course, if you're going to reject the existence of God I wouldn't expect you to see it that way. Maybe they were just sheep herders who were accidentally really smart, right ;)

Van Til even went so far as to say the atheist was intentionally delusional, which I agree with. The thought that we don't have to be held ultimately accountable for our thoughts and actions is not only comforting, it's a sentiment that's reflecting into society's culture today at an alarming rate. So essentially, the fundamental difference between our worldviews is that the atheist thinks they're a good person. I on the other hand know I'm not a good person. In fact I'm so far off from the infinite that I'm totally depraved.

CPA here -- Pastors can no longer write off mileage or home office on their taxes, the new tax laws did away with that for all employees. Your best bet is to is to have the church setup something called an "accountable reimbursement" plan. Then you can be reimbursed by the church for mileage and home office. You'll have to provide documentation, but that's simple.

Here are a few resources for you:

1. Zondarvan's Minister's Tax Guide for 2019: Decent book on how taxes apply to ministers. Pretty easy to read. https://www.amazon.com/Zondervan-2019-Ministers-Financial-Guide/dp/0310588774
   
2. 2019 Church and Clergy Tax Guide: This is a much more in depth book. If you're goal is to be a pastor of a church, this is good information to know. Certainly the Zondarvan book enough, but I include this for your further reference.
   
3. Guidestar's Minister's Tax Guide: A webpage with information on tax rules for ministers as well as a guide for preparing your taxes, with examples. FREE!
   
4. Church Law and Tax: An absolute great resource for ministers and churches on not only taxes, but also law. Here's their page for clergy, but there is much more on their site (PS they publish the book in number 2) https://www.churchlawandtax.com/topics/understand-taxes/clergy/
   
5. IRS summary of minister pay: Short introduction of minister income https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc417
   
6. IRS publication on minister pay and social security taxes: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p517.pdf
   
   ​
   
   I hope this helps. Of course my remarks here are meant to be general in nature. :)

Sorry that this will sound patronizing, but how educated are you about the Bible as a historical document? I majored in religious studies with a focus on Christian origins. I know a good bit about it.

> Jesus claiming to be God IS the whole point of the new testament

This is basically true. But that's not the same as what Jesus, the historical figure, said or believed.

The Bible is inarguably a hodge-podge of different stories and accounts, many of which conflict with each other. The book of John was written much later than Matthew, Mark, Luke, or "Q" and reflects an advanced notion of Christian theology. It's no coincidence that Jesus says things in John that are much different than in the other three. The author of John wasn't somehow aware of Jesus-sayings that the other authors weren't.

> Most everything in the Gospels is proof of the fulfillment of the OT prophecy about the messiah.

Most everything in the Gospels is certainly written to be proof. The authors definitely had that goal in mind. But it doesn't mean that the actual historical events were proof.

> I don't know where you got this nonsense about later sources being less accurate, but there is simply no basis for that.

Yes, there is. I got it from my bachelor's degree (and, ya know, from common sense). I invite you to start your research here and continue with books like this and this (or even this). If you've never performed comparative study of the gospels, this is a neat resource too. (Note that the latter book doesn't even mention John, which is just that far removed from the other gospels.)

> to say Jesus never reliably claimed to be God is just insane

As wrong as you are about the historical facts, I will back off a little here: there is sufficient evidence that Jesus believed himself to be the "Son of Man," and probably even the Messiah. However the more historically reliable documents suggest that he was extremely cagey about saying this himself (Matthew 16 is a perfect example of this), whereas the less reliable documents have him declaring it quite explicitly.

All that being said, I think we left the primary point a little bit. Jesus most certainly was a moral inspiration (whether he called himself that or not), and it's that example—not literal salvation—that my mother (and I, for that matter) are inspired by.

Here is a great book on walking through the journey of being called to full-time vocational ministry.

First and foremost is pray and time spent delving into the Word. We can "feel" all sorts of things, but the only infallible guide we have is the Bible. Be in it. All the time. Pray specifically that the Holy Spirit would answer your questions- through Scripture- about the calling.

Also, make sure it is your calling. Lots of people can tell you that you might be a good pastor or missionary or whatever, but it is God and God alone who calls. Once you feel certain from Scripture that you are called, then go to others for affirmation.

Finally, pray and read Scripture even more. The calling/surrendering to full-time vocational ministry is just the beginning step! Start praying about whether you should go to seminary. Start praying about specifically where God would have you serve Him. He will answer those questions through Scripture.

Praying for you, brother!

I'm really into Sojourn from Louisville, the new Gospel Coalition album from the book of Luke, The Sing Team (and basically anything that Brian Eichelberger does), anything by bifrost arts, The Modern Post, and Peters Branch

When It comes to books, I've really loved Mike Cosper's Book, Rhythms of Grace, Kauflin's Worship Matters, and Harold M. Best's Unceasing Worship.

All of these books are steeped in great theology, story and are incredibly inspiring to the worshiper and worship leader.

I'm currently reading Unceasing Worship and have been blown away by it!

I'm in Indianapolis, where are you in Kentucky? I'd love to try and meet up sometime when I'm in Louisville to visit family.

In addition to some other great recommendations already put out there, I'd wholeheartedly recommend Zac Hicks' [The Worship Pastor] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CXDN2TC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1). Despite the title, it definitely doesn't apply only to people with "pastor" in their job description - in fact, Hicks argues heavily that worship leadership is an eminently pastoral role and that all worship leaders need to consider themselves pastors and take their pastoral call seriously. It's also a very practical book (that speaks a lot to the "in the trenches" work of leading gathered, congregational worship every week) and is, very importantly, Christ-centered and focused on the story of the Gospel, using its narrative structure to shape the flow of worship.

I've also been given a few recommendations by my pastor that I'll pass on to you, though I'll mention straight away that I haven't read these ones yet so I can't give you any thoughts:

• The Worship Architect by Constance Cherry
  
• Rhythms of Grace by Mike Cosper

So, I actually have a master's in theology and my thesis was on biblical infertility and conception. While my research was limited to Genesis; Sarah/Hagar, Rebekah, Rachel/Leah/Bilhah/Zilpah, etc., I do know some here and there about the other ladies who struggled. I'm at work so I don't have my thesis and supporting docs readily available, but I wanted to at least let you know there are some sources out there.

Off the top of my head, look up writer bell hooks, and a book I relied heavily on was Joel Baden and Candida Moss' book Reconveiving Infertility.

When I get home, I will look up more, but please feel free to DM me if you want!

Edit: sentences have subjects AND verbs!

​

More edits:

I got bored at work and looked up some of my resources.

You may find the following of interest:

Far More Precious than Jewels: Perspectives on Biblical Women by Katheryn Pfisterer Darr

Sarah Laughed: Women's Voices in the Old Testament by Trevor Dennis

"Rachel and Leah" by Samuel H. Dresher, an article from Judaism 30, no 2 pub 1989

"The Four Wives of Jacob: Matriarchs Seen and Unseen" by Elizabeth Wyner Mark, an article from The Reconstructionist 63 no 1 pub 1998

"THrough Her I Too Shall Bear a Child: Birth Surrogates in Jewish Law" by Elie Spitz, an article from Journal of Religious Ethics 24 no 1 pub 1996

​

​

My library (that is, the one I work for) maintains a shelf of materials (everything from instruction manuals to the occasional video game) that are unfit to be properly catalogued and put on the shelves. They are entirely unregistered. You can just take them. Occasionally I strike gold and get a free copy of a decent book, or, more commonly, books written by raving loonies that are fun for a cheap laugh. We'll go give the thing a once-over to make sure nobody's slipping cult or pyramid scheme brochures between the books. Otherwise, we don't care.

On top of that, we maintain a set of "honor system" shelves filled with mass-market paperbacks. These are technically registered in that we have a list of everything we may or may not still have, but it's not properly catalogued. It's not properly sorted, either; we literally just slap a sticker on the spine identifying the first letter of the author's last name, and none of the other letters in the author's name matter for the purpose of sorting. Patrons don't even have to check them out, and they're returned within the month. Or not. People could just steal a couple dozen of them and nobody would really notice for months, nor would we really care. They're mass-market paperbacks, and putting them in the stacks would be a waste because they'd disintegrate within the year anyway.

Occasionally you'll see a circulation volunteer try and sort the honor system books properly, which is a bit like trying to put out a wildfire by blowing on it.

Would be curious to see which parts of your state or local law code regulate the establishment of private libraries and/or book lending/donation services. As far as I know, most states really do not regulate such establishments outside the usual building codes and such. It's mostly public libraries that get most of the regulatory burden. I'm sure a subscription library (such libraries are quite rare nowadays) would also need to follow certain business laws to ensure you're not scamming members. But all of the laws I'm aware of that would pertain to what you describe in your post are related to the actual business and building, and not to the act of borrowing/lending/holding books.

I highly recommend you get and read Engaging with Muslims. It’s only like 100 pages and so is a little pricey for such a short book (it’s an obscure publisher I think) so get it on kindle or look for a used copy. But it is a very helpful book for understanding and sharing the gospel with Muslims.

What is important to understand is you should not spend much time arguing with them and especially do not try to prove their religion wrong. Muhammad was not a great dude (married a 5 y/o and had sex with her when she was 9), and there are lots of inconsistencies in the Qur’an. But if you start to poke holes in their beliefs, you may offend them and lose them as a friend. They likely come from an honor/shame society, so making them look bad may mean you will lose your gospel witness. Also they have tons of safeguards in place to block criticisms, such as abrogation, where old Qur’anic texts are overwritten by newer ones.

Instead, try to build friendships with them. This is done by spending a lot of time with them—doing things like inviting them over to eat. Eventually you’ll want to read Bible stories with them, and begin to point to their need for a Savior in Christ. They work very hard to earn salvation, but even if they are a very good Muslim they have zero assurance. The book I recommended works through all of that. Most of all though, make sure you are praying for them. They are all sinners in need of grace.

I'm not aware of any catechisms that are structured that way, but what you are describing is basically the difference between Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology.

If you want to get a good primer in Biblical Theology, there are several great sources out there.

The Goldsworthy Trilogy (Gospel and Kingdom, Gospel in Wisdom, Gospel in Revelation) by Graeme Goldsworthy

According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy

God's Big Picture by Vaughan Roberts

What is Biblical Theology by James Hamilton

Facing the Giants is a pretty didactic film, made for a very specific purpose of teaching a specific set of lessons to Christians. Doesn't really fit the criteria that McCracken laid out:

>I’m not talking about “faith-based films” as the marketing term Hollywood uses for movies like Fireproof and God’s Not Dead. I’m not talking about films made for faith audiences so much as films made to explore faith: the struggle and beauty of faith, its many ups and downs, its fragile place in our secular age.

Check out Rhythms of Grace by Mike Cosper. The book does an excellent job of explaining what gospel-centered worship looks like.

Also, Cosper is one of the worship pastors in my church, so the book also does a great job explaining how we as a church do things.

To me the missing piece in understanding the Bible is Biblical Theology which is understanding the Bible as a whole. I was never taught in church growing up that the Bible had a single, consistent story much less how the parts of the Bible fit into that story.

So a good book on Biblical Theology would be very helpful to you, like this one.

The deacon at my parish has set up a religious education program for kids with autism and other special needs (looks like he has a book explaining how to, but I haven't read it). With a moderate to high functioning kid you give them one-on-one time, a great deal of patience, and get to know what are the good approaches for that particular kid to get them to tune in to you. I don't have direct experience with severe.

A book, not a journal, but still a very good read - http://smile.amazon.com/Maps-Meaning-Levitical-Models-Contemporary/dp/1451482949/

It discusses the role of priests to separate the unclean from society, and then to bring them back. It takes a multi-millennia old idea and brings it up to date with the 21st century. It's told from the point of view of spiritual care and counseling.

Here are their top picks for each category:

​

Apologetics/Evangelism - Evangelism in a Skeptical World: How to Make the Unbelievable News About Jesus More Believable

​

Biblical Studies - Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Gospels

​

Children and Youth - The Friend Who Forgives

​

Christian Living/Discipleship - The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World

​

The Church/Pastoral Leadership - Preaching as Reminding: Stirring Memory in an Age of Forgetfulness

​

CT Women - Perfectly Human: Nine Months with Cerian

​

Culture and the Arts - Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?: Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock

​

Fiction - An Extra Mile: A Story of Embracing God’s Call

​

History/Biography - The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism: True Religion in a Modern World

​

Missions/Global Church - Megachurch Christianity Reconsidered: Millennials and Social Change in African Perspective

​

Politics and Public Life - Scars Across Humanity: Understanding and Overcoming Violence Against Women

​

Spiritual Formation - Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

​

Theology/Ethics - Seeing God: The Beatific Vision in Christian Tradition

Just read it in the last 12 hours! It was helpful. Also helpful was this one.

As an Orthodox Christian, I'm interested in the way emergent people are asking the same questions we've been asking all along.

• Isn't Evangelicalism captive to Enlightenment values and worldview?
  
• Isn't Evangelical ecclesiology [understanding of what it is to be the Church] weak and ineffective?
  
• Isn't the Evangelical gospel overly focused on personal justification?
  
  ..and so on.
  
  Jim Belcher's excellent book Deep Church](http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Church-Beyond-Emerging-Traditional/dp/0830837167) is a sympathetic overview of the issues emergent Christians identify as needing new, better answers, and some of the things they've proposed instead. The answers they come up with tend to be constrained by their western paradigm, but many of their questions and criticisms are the same ones I'd offer.

Yep. Here are my sources:

1. Jesus Reconsidered
   
2. The Five Gospels
   
3. The Writings of the New Testament
   
4. [The Inculturation of the Jesus Tradition]
   (http://www.amazon.com/Inculturation-Jesus-Tradition-Impact-Cultures/dp/1563382954/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top)
   
5. Over ten years of study of the origins of Christianity, many of those seeks new and clever ways for me to debunk theists.

A small book helped me get started on reading the OT (and also the whole bible). Since you aren't an absolute beginner, most of the things are common knowledge, but it helps in wrapping it all together in a framework when reading the OT.

https://www.amazon.com/What-Biblical-Theology-Symbolism-Patterns/dp/1433537710

I'd like to recommend reading "The Doubting Disease". It really helped me. Here's the link to amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Doubting-Disease-Scrupulosity-Compulsions/dp/0809135531

I found Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional to be very helpful and challenging.

Jim Belcher is a PCA pastor, so he's not advocating that we abandon the traditional, confessional denominations, despite what the wording of the title might lead you to think.

Belcher is very gracious and thorough in his handling of Emergent Church writers, but he doesn't let them off the hook, either.

You can find this message and more like it in Bryan Chappell's volume, The Hardest Sermons You'll Ever Have to Preach.

This is the best one I know of. It is mostly religious but addresses moral scrupulosity: http://www.amazon.com/The-Doubting-Disease-Scrupulosity-Compulsions/dp/0809135531

There are three Synoptics, not four, and the gold standard is this one.

Is this in reference to Cage-Stage Calvinism? If so, I recommend this book.