Your next summer read may be in this post. As promised, I have some book recommendations to inspire you. This top 10 list comes from the pastor of my sister and brother-in-law. In no particular order, Pastor Jason recommends these summer reads:
- Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels
- The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg
- If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat by John Ortberg
- Chasing Daylight by Erwin McManus
- Crazy Love by Francis Chan
- Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick
- Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller
- Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
- Letters from a Skeptic by Gregory Boyd
- Knowing God by J. I. Packer
I have read three of the above books (5, 7 and 8) and can say they place on the list for good reason. It’s a safe bet that the others have equal “top 10” merit. After all, if the entire list is the same quality as Searching for God Knows What, anyone who has been reading this blog knows it would be a life-changing summer if someone read the whole list.
Do you think there are books missing from this list? What other books should a Christian read over the summer? I mean besides the obvious one too great to even compare with others. Seriously, comment with your favorite Christian reads.
And while you’re commenting anyway, maybe you can answer a question that came up with a couple friends this weekend. They were wondering who the contemporary, big-name Christian authors are. Those authors whose books become fodder for church small groups and they get invited to speak at every Christian conference in the nation? Who are those authors who everyone seems to talk about? Let’s start a list.
Reviewed Thought 
robstroud
August 1, 2012 at 12:06 am
It’s difficult to make lists like this because people are in such diverse places in terms of their spiritual pilgrimage. You can’t go wrong with Mere Christianity, but there are other works I’d recommend sooner to people if I knew their personalities and life questions.
Emily R
August 9, 2012 at 8:19 pm
Thank you for your comment. I agree with your point. It is difficult to make any Christian reading list, I’d say, if only for the vast variety of options available to us. But there are certainly books that would be better to read at one time of life or personal situation that are not much use in others. What I like about the pastor’s list for summer, though, is that it includes a variety of styles and topics, so that someone may find at least one or two books of interest to try. That said, I still would enjoy any recommendations you want to share that have been particularly helpful to you.
Skye Ho
May 29, 2017 at 5:46 pm
The Insanity of God by Nik Ripken.
This book about evangelism and the persecuted church is a present day classic. I’ve read a lot of books and this is my favorite over the past decade. Check out the review and score on Amazon.