Books I Hope to Read in 2022

Last week I linked to several books I recommend based on my reading in 2021. Below are several I hope to get to in the New Year. I linked them for your convenience, and if you are looking for any last second Christmas ideas for me (just kidding. . . sort of.) Below the link I have cut and pasted the description provided by Amazon.

What are books you hope to get to in the next year?

Pastoral leadership is in crisis. It’s not just that many pastors feel overwhelmed and stressed out; many have lost their way. With the risk of burnout at an all-time high, what pastors need is not just a new leadership strategy, but a new framework for ministry―one that will help them move from survival to flourishing.

In these pages, Tom Nelson looks to the biblical image of the shepherd leader in response to the contemporary context. If pastors are to lead congregations, then they must first learn what it means to be led by the Good Shepherd. Pulling from his years of experience as a lead pastor and president of a nonprofit, Nelson offers pastors and ministry leaders a timely vision for leadership that incorporates in-depth biblical teaching and whole-life discipleship. His wisdom and insight provide a roadmap for ministry resilience and longevity.

We’re being formed by our devices. Today’s digital technologies are designed to captivate our attention and encroach on our boundaries, shaping how we relate to time and space, to ourselves and others, even to God. Our natural longing for relationship makes us vulnerable to the “industrializing” effects of social media. While we enjoy the benefits of digital tech, many of us feel troubled with its power and exhausted by its demands for permanent connectivity. Yet even as we grow disenchanted, attempting to resist the digital “powers that be” might seem like a losing battle.

Sociologist Felicia Wu Song has spent years considering the personal and collective dynamics of digital ecosystems. She combines psychological, neurological, and sociological insights with theological reflection to explore two major questions:

Song unpacks the soft tyranny of the digital age, including the values embedded in our apps and the economic systems that drive our habits. She then explores pathways of meaningful resistance that can be found in Christian tradition―especially counter-narratives about human worth, embodiment, relationality, and time―and offers practical experiments for individual and communal change.

In our current digital ecologies, small behavioral shifts are not enough to give us freedom. We need a sober and motivating vision of our prospects to help us imagine what kind of life we hope to live―and how we can get there.

Contemporary life is leaving us frazzled, overwhelmed, and out of sorts.

Our life’s rhythm is often borrowed from the pace of life around us. Humans have created such a loud, fast tempo of perfection and production that we often forget–if we ever knew it at all–the rhythms designed for our well-being. In The Sacred Pulse, pastor and author April Fiet invites us to examine the frantic patterns of our lives to reclaim the deeper, sacred pulses that pattern our days. Through stories, scripture, and practical guidance for daily living, she lays out twelve rhythms–including gardening, handcrafts, friendship, and holidays–that are both sustainable and sustaining. Everyday acts like mealtime and shopping, and sporadic rhythms like the occasional snow day: reclaiming these patterns can remind us of the holy movement of God in the world.

In a world of hustle and bravado, silencing the noise takes practice. The Sacred Pulse shows us how to strip away all of the competing beats we have settled for so we can tap into the joyful, holy rhythms of life.

This book helps pastors and church leaders understand the role their personal transformation as Jesus’s disciples plays in effective congregational leadership. It shifts the focus of leadership from techniques and charisma to spiritual transformation and developing emotional maturity so leaders can effectively lead congregations to embrace change. End-of-chapter discussion questions are included. The first edition sold more than 20,000 copies and has been regularly used as a textbook over the past fifteen years. The second edition has been revised throughout and includes a greater emphasis on Bowen Family Systems Theory.

Proctor and Taylor share their insights and unravel the mysteries of how to be a pastor of integrity and character.