Friday Reads: Five Books That Formed My Faith
29 years ago today, I became a Christian. Here are five books that helped shape my spiritual journey.
29 years ago today, I became a Christian at the close of a midweek Bible study. From earliest memories, my life is filled with many people who served as role models and encouragers. The Scriptures read and applied in the context of devotional reading, academic study, and the communal life of the church became and continue to be a leading and transforming force in creating and sustaining my faith.
In addition to the Bible, here are some books that, at various moments and in various ways, served to form my walk with Christ.
Songs of the Church - Alton Howard, editor
If you were brought up in an a cappella congregation of the churches of Christ from the 1970s onward, you are probably familiar with this hymnal. These songs were formational in my childhood, and the congregation I serve still uses an edition of Songs of the Church as our primary hymnbook today.
No matter where I have traveled or the size of the congregation visited, many of the hymns collected here are still sung and serve as a basis for fellowship and praise. From these pages, I learned about the sweet hour of prayer, the floods and dragons that praise Jehovah, and the tie that binds. Remember the 10 Commandments of the Songbook? 728b?
If you know, you know.
Journals of Jim Elliot - Elisabeth Elliot, editor
As I grew up in my faith, I was drawn to stories of great heroism and sacrifice. Like many young Christians, my thoughts were naturally turned to the accounts of missions and missionaries. Long before I was challenged to consider the cultural and ethical implications of certain aspects of international mission work, I was drawn into the lives of people like David Brainerd, Amy Carmichael, and of course, Jim Elliot.
While I read the biographies of Elliot published after his death, it was the journal collection that captured my mind most. Elliot wrote about his passion for God, his struggles with temptation, his relationship with Betty (future wife, Elisabeth), and his desire not to settle for the domestic gospel pep talk circuit when a lost world had never heard the name of Jesus. Certainly, Elliot’s theology is imperfect in several points, and his expressions are fitting to his times (1940s-50s), but this book changed my view of what Christian ministry could be.
I read this book in a moment in my life when much of the cultural Christianity around me seemed small and petty- Elliot’s belief in God and God’s mission drew me deeper in my own commitment to Christ and what that might look like lived out in my daily life.
A Longing for Holiness: Selected Writings of John Wesley - Keith Beasley-Topliffe, editor
As a grandchild of the Methodist movement, quite a bit of my childhood religious life was impacted by Wesleyan theology- even if I did not know it at the time. I was an avid reader of The Upper Room devotional and as a teenager/young adult I frequently visited special events and holiday services at Methodist churches.
I received this slim volume of gems from the pen of Wesley when I was in high school, and my own life and ministry have been impacted by his wide-open approach to proclaiming good news. As with Elliot and his Brethren background above, I often do not agree with Wesley’s applications, but I do not deny the single-mindedness of his purpose.
As I grew up, I learned more of Wesley, his brother, Charles, his mother, Susanna, and his contemporaries George Whitefield, Howell Harris, Francis Asbury, and other early pioneers of this revival spirit. These early encounters with passionate believers pushed me to discover more and more about the history of the faith.
The Man from Mars Hill: The Life and Times of T.B. Larimore - J.M. Powell
As a young teenager, I read Larimore and His Boys by F.D. Srygley, and this classic lead me into a lifelong admiration of T.B. Larimore and his efforts to preach the gospel faithfully while navigating the waters of division within the American Restoration Movement that grew more and more fractured around him during the course of his life and ministry.
In his more modern biography, Powell undertakes the task of talking not only of Larimore’s long and active life but in offering up a deeper evaluation of what made him so effective in his times and one of the most respected of men within a dividing movement. In the era of debating and printed attacks, Larimore sought to preach with grace and to live in peace. I pray that my own life and ministry have mirrored much of what I learned and sought to imitate from this historic hero of faith.
So Send I You / Workmen of God: Recognizing and Answering God's Call to Service - Oswald Chambers
I read this combined work of Chambers at a point in my life when I was seeking to discern a path forward in life and ministry. While I was focusing on how I would use my life and my talents to win souls to Christ, I was challenged that I myself lacked a real, deep, abiding relationship with Jesus.
Arising as I did from a background that stressed practicality and activity, Chambers, and over time writers like A.B. Simpson, Hudson Taylor, A.W. Tozer, Samuel Chadwick, and Leonard Ravenhill, would push me to consider much more carefully the “deeper life” and “the Spirit-filled life” in ways foreign to my more familiar formulaic engagement with faith. I did not and do not agree with all of Chambers’ conclusions, but the intensity and commitment to both be with Christ and to live for Christ inspired me then and convict me now.
What book has significantly helped in forming your faith?
Two disclaimers:
I do not use affiliate links and draw no financial benefit from sharing links here. These are books that have blessed me and direct ways to find them. When possible, I attempt to link to bookshop.org where purchases support independent bookstores around the country. When bookshop does not have a title available, I will link to an edition available from another online seller. Due to their age and specificity, many books I read are out of print, and a link may direct you to an updated or modern reprint edition. Physical bookstores (especially used bookstores) are often a treasure for classic religious texts.
No individual, even those seeking to live and minister faithfully, is perfect just as no uninspired writing is perfect. I believe it is a mark of maturity to be able to read widely and weigh any writing by its accuracy and alignment with God’s Word. All resources and authors recommended here are offered with the belief that truth has nothing to fear from thoughtful engagement and that faith is strengthened from reading diverse perspectives and exercising faithful discernment.