Meadowcroft PCA

All My Knotted-Up Life - Beth Moore

While I’ve been familiar with Beth Moore, I’ve never deeply read any of her previous books or Bible studies. One thing I have heard about her is that she is an excellent storyteller, and I can confirm that she is. Her story is fascinating and her memoir is a page-turner.

Moore writes with honesty about growing up, coming to faith, her marriage, and even the tragedy of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. She also details the falling-out she experienced with certain parts of the American church in October 2016 when she shared concerns about then-candidate Donald Trump after the release of the Access Hollywood tape - as well as the healing she has experienced in recent years as a member of a small Anglican church in Texas.

Quote: The trick to dealing with criticism is letting it do its good work but forbidding it to demoralize and destroy or to embitter.

Seasons of Sorrow - The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God - Tim Challies

I began reading Tim Challies about 20 years ago - he was one of the pioneering Christian “bloggers” and was initially known for pointing Christians to other good resources (internet articles, books, etc.) Eventually Tim began to author his own books.

In November 2020, Tim and his wife Aileen experienced the tragedy of the sudden death of their oldest son, Nick. Nick was away at college, participating in a school activity, when he suddenly fell dead in the presence of both his sister and his fiance.

It’s hard to express how beautifully and poignantly Tim writes about both the deep loss he experienced and also the deep hope that God has given him and his family in the midst of this tragedy

Quote: While the streams of joy and sorrow run in parallel, they are not identical. The stream of joy is more like a gentle brook, while the stream of sorrow is like a raging river. It is sorrow, not joy, that threatens to overwhelm me, pull me in, and drag me under. I’ve never had to remind myself to temper my joy with sorrow, but I have often had to remind myself to search for light amid the darkness.

The Great De-Churching - Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back? - Jim Davis and Michael Graham

This book is the result of much careful and rigorous study regarding the many people who have left the church in recent years. The authors estimate that there are 40 million adults in America who used to go to church, but no longer do. There is plenty of statistical analysis on this group, along with careful advice regarding how the church can engage with those who have left.

One thing I appreciated about this book is that it shows that the dechurching phenomenon is a complex one that impacts all kinds of churches. It stays away from simple answers and gives both encouragement and challenge for churches across the denominational spectrum.

Quote: As church leaders, it’s tempting to point the finger at the dechurched and their lack of commitment or discipline (which may in fact be an issue). But what if we instead held a mirror up to ourselves and asked what the Bible says about belonging in a Christian community? What are we doing to foster it in our churches? It’s a sad indictment on the church that so many people find a more compelling and rich community around their children’s sports teams, paddle boarding clubs, and the gym than in church.

The Transfiguration of Christ - An Exegetical and Theological Reading - Patrick Schreiner

When Max tasked me with preaching on the Transfiguration passage in Luke a few months ago, my first step was to panic a little bit (it’s such a rich and weighty passage) and my second step was to order this book by Patrick Schreiner. I was so glad that I did! This isn’t a book I probably would have picked up if I hadn’t had the privilege of teaching on the topic.

Schreiner is an outstanding author who is good at distilling complicated topics and drawing out implications for living in this world. This book is warm, readable, and encouraging. Schreiner details the importance of the transfiguration (other church traditions tend to value it more than ours does) and then walks in detail through how Matthew, Mark and Luke desribe the transfiguration. There is so much richness in these descriptions that I absolutely would not have seen without Schreiner’s help.

Quote: The goal of the transfiguration is union. Right before the transfiguration, Jesus speaks about how in the last day “the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom.” The transfiguration is not only about Jesus’s transformation but about ours. Our future is revealed in the face of Jesus.

Perfect Unity - A Guide for Christian Doctrine and Life - Ralph Cunnington

In a time marked by polarization and anger, one of the great opportunities for the church is to reflect the unity of God in the way that we love one another. Ralph Cunnington (from the UK), speaks into this issue. He references the phrase “distinct but inseparable” as a helpful way to think about both God and the church. He starts from a theology of God’s triune existence and moves on to describe, beautifully, the Gospel, what God is doing in the world, what a Christian is, and what the church is.

Cunnington shows, again and again, the problems that come when we either minimize distinction or minimize the idea of being inseparable. I was especially struck by his description of the sin in Genesis 3 being one of Adam and Eve rejecting distinction and wanting to be like God.

I was also encouraged by Cunnington’s assessment of men and women serving together in the church, something we continue to desire to grow in at MPC.

Quote: The things we most appreciate in the world around us bring together unity and diversity. The best films, music, architecture, literature, even the best cooking, combine order and variety, predictability and surprise. That is because the world we inahbit was created by a God who is one and many, distinct but inseprable.

Outgrowing the Ingrown Church - C. John Miller

Jack Miller was a PCA pastor and church planter in the Philadelphia area. He wrote several helpful books (including The Heart of Servant Leader). In this book, he writes of his own journey in becoming less inward-focused, more outward-focused, and leading his church in the same way.

Miller’s journey was based on growth in his prayer life - aggressively praying for God to do great works in the life of the church and unbelievers - and on a deepened attention to people on the margins (the poor, the aged, the lonely).

This is a helpful and challenging book! It can be very easy for churches to become “ingrown” - more focused on their own issues and programs than on existing as a light to the community. This challenge can be especially relevant for the season our church is in - we’ve worked to reset our diaconal and shepherding ministries, we are adding staff, and we are considering options with our building. In all these things, it can be easy for us to be consumed by internal things and begin to forget about our neighbors who need Jesus.

Quote: (The commissioned church) aggressively and joyfully seeks out the unchurched, laboring to welcome them into the church as members of the body of Christ. Its leaders self-consciously reject a “Christian clubhouse” atmosphere and devote themselves to developing in the congregation an open face to the community and the world beyond. The local leaders model a welcoming lifestyle and seek to mobilize others to do the same.

One with My Lord: The Life-Changing Reality of Being in Christ - Sam Allberry

Sam Allberry’s goal in this book was to bring a sometimes challenging and forgotten topic (union with Christ) to bear on our everyday lives. He accomplishes his mission - this book is joyfully and wonderfully written, and tremendously encouraging.

Allberry notes that the New Testament very rarely uses the word “Christian” - instead, typically using the phrase “in Christ” to describe believers. He points out that union with Christ is a great “linking” doctrine that helps to bring so many strands of the Christian life together.

Allberry is a strong writer, in part because he excels at giving robust and relatable illustrations. There is scarcely a point in the book that is not adeptly illustrated - often with a story from his own life. The illustrations make the book understandable and easy to read.

Quote: When the New Testament calls us to holiness, it is calling us to be who we now are. If I am who I am in Christ, then it is holiness - not sinfulness - that is now who I most truly am in the deepest core of my being…If you’re resisting something all the while believing it is who you really are, it will be that much harder to imagine any kind of victory over it…Who we think “we really are” has a profoundly powerful effect on how we expect to be able to live…Union with Christ means that, ultimately, sin is the real imposter in our lives.

Affirming God’s Image - Addressing the Transgender Question with Science and Scripture - J. Alan Branch

I read this book while working on an adult Sunday School class on sexuality - it was really clear, helpful, and level-headed, written with conviction and care. Branch addresses the challenge of transgenderism from the background of history, science, and, of course, Scripture. He also takes care to slow down and describe the vocabulary used by this movement. And, while difficult to read at times, he also looks at both hormonal treatments and gender reassignment surgery. Anyone looking for a good overview of this topic would benefit from this book.

Quote: Christians fighting transgender temptation deserve our mercy, since, especially in our current environment, other people wll encourage them to embrace transgenderism while fellow Christians may be frightened someone experiencing this challenge. It is an unenviable position, but the local church exists so we don’t have to fight temptation alone.

Citizenship Without Illusions - A Christian Guide to Political Engagement - David T. Koyzis

Koyzis wrote the best Christian book on politics - Political Visions and Illusions. This book is his long-awaited follow up, in which he tries to flesh out some of what it looks like to actually participate in the political process in a way that honors the Lord.

I didn’t think this book was as transformative as his first, but I thought it was really clear and realistic. He discusses what citizenship is, what it looks like this, and even how this plays out in our voting. Koyzis is not overly prescriptive (some might be frustrated by how general he is) and is nonpartisan, cautioning Christians away from strict allegiance to one political party (Koyzis lives and ministers in Canada, so he isn’t strictly addressing the right/left divide in America).

There are obviously many books available on Christians and political engagement - this is a really good one for its depth, breadth, clarity and generosity.

Quote: If we find ourselves always parroting one party’s agenda and vilifying the other party’s, I suggest that something is amiss. We should consider the possibility that we’ve turned off our critical faculties and muted our capacity for spiritual discernment. And, if this is so, then we have needlessly cordoned ourselves off from our fellow believers who may think differently. It would be far better if Christians, who find themselves supporting different parties, were to recognize that they have more in common with each other than with their fellow Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, or Conservatives. This could lead them to mitigate their partisan preferences and to recognize the genuine flaws in whichever party they support in an election.

This last set of books are not explicitly Christian, but can help us in understanding the world we live in.

Never Enough - When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic - and What We Can Do About It - Jennifer Breheny Wallace

Somehow, I made it through the year without reading The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt (it’s on my list for 2025) - but I have a feeling that it will be a nice companion to this book by Jennifer Wallace. Wallace, a parent herself, seeks to explore “achievement culture” as part of the reason for declining mental health among children and teens.

Wallace looks at how achievement culture has transformed many aspects of growing up, including sports and education. The book is filled with research and anecdotes describing the pressure that many kids feel in this area.

This book can be helpful to Christians as we seek to raise kids together as a church. We can be helped in rethinking our priorities, and also encouraged to help our kids find their worth in the great dignity they have been made with by a God who loves them, rather than in academic and athletic success.

Quote: These students are playing out their young lives in a kind of gilded pressure cooker - shiny on the outside, punishing on the inside. Every win sets even higher expectations: harder classes, tougher tournaments. Even activities that are supposed to be fun and stress reducing, like playing a sport or a musical instrument, becomes a means to an end: padding for life’s resume.

A Web of Our Own Making - The Nature of Digital Formation - Anton Barbra-Kay

This is a really interesting look into how our digital technologies form us. It fits nicely with the “Digital Liturgies” book noted above, in that, rather than taking aim at the content of digital media, it considers the very form and nature of digital data, and how it actually changes the way we assess the world and even ourselves.

This book was in the back of my mind as I worked on our church Sunday school class on sexuality - the speed and ubiquity of the sexual revolution is hard to unwind from the digital revolution - and as the church considers a way forward in teaching and living out a Biblical sexual ethic, I believe that our relationship to technology and digitization presents some difficult but helpful questions for us to consider.

(Note - the top half of this book cover has some artistic nudity on it, I removed that part of the cover here for those sensitive to this).

Quote: …Our daily activities and our conception of ourselves are being progressively refigured through our awareness of their quantification. As our devices measure our sleep, our steps, our heart rate, our temperature, our Covid exposures, our locations, our routes, and so on, we are ourselves incentivized to “optimize” our practices construed in precisely such terms…Digital quantification has the same character, the same power of transformative neutrality; data is the mirror that, seeming only to reflect, changes our assessment of what we see.

The End of the Affair - Graham Greene

Every year, I tell myself I’m going to read more fiction, and every year, I fall short of this goal. I am glad that this year led me to this short novel by Graham Greene, who, unbeknownst to me, has helped many Christians consider the world that we live in. Check out all the hits on the “theology search” that I built and use often on Google. In particular, you can check out this review from Jared Wilson.

The book centers on three characters - a husband (Henry), his unfaithful wife (Sarah), and the man who Sarah had an affair with (Bendrix). I don’t want to give too much away, but the story actually turns to God and his pursuit of people in a surprising and challenging way. This is a really wonderful book - hoping to read more fiction this year (I know, I know).

Quote: It's a strange thing to discover and to believe that you are loved when you know that there is nothing in you for anybody but a parent or a God to love.

Dwelling Place - A Plantation Epic - Erskine Clarke

This is a historical account of life on plantations in coastal Georgia during the time of slavery (the book covers the years 1805 to 1869). Erskine Clark wrote this book through attentive studies of diaries and other historical records of the time. The result is remarkable - a story centered around Pastor/Plantation owner Charles Colcock, who felt called to minister to the slaves of the area while dealing with (and sadly, ultimately suppressing) his doubts about the institution of slavery.

Clarke does wonderful work in bringing these long-ago characters to life, and bringing us inside the many struggles of the slaves (interspersed with true joy) as well as the many struggles and rationalizations of the owners. Each of the characters in the book is treated as a real person.

Quote: The churches…had begun to insist on the sanctity of slave marriages…The tensions created by attempting to uphold marriage within a system that worked directly against it could be seen in the records of Midway (Church). Time and again, the (elders) had to decide what to do when a spouse was removed or sold away. And over and over again, the (elders) had to decide that a spouse must be treated as dead because it was unlikely that a husband or wife would ever be returned to the county.