Pastoral Library

I have a list I give to people who ask. I'll email it to you, and to anyone who wants it. Soup-to-nuts list of recommended works.

 

Buy stuff you will really use.

1. Jay Adams books on counseling.
2. ANYTHING by John MacArthur, J I Packer, A W Pink, Spurgeon,
3. A T Robertson's Word Pictures in the Greek New Testament
4. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
5. Jamison, Fausset and Brown Commentary
6. Kingdom of the Cults, by Walter Martin
7. Any of the Puritan Paperbacks series by Banner of Truth Trust
8. Tyndale NT Commentaries
9. Haldane on Romans, Hodge on Romans, and Lloyd-Jones on Romans and Ephesians

 

Add to your list books on practical ministry such as leadership, church growth, evangelism, philosophy of ministry, doing ministry in a post-modern world, etc.

My library is about 80% academic (theology, commentaries, language tools, etc.) yet the 20% that is practical is equally as helpful to me (and more helpful at times).

Start with the basics like Maxwell, Sweet, Andy Stanley, Hybels, Warren, Rainer, Barna, and others who are leading the way in doing effective ministry today.

 

USN, are you a member of CBD? They have an excellent clearance sale right now.
Reference materials, books on theology, church resources, etc.. If you're not a member become one and ask for the Summer 2003 Inventory Clearance Sale catalog.
Gina

 

I'm finishing up my list for you. It's going to be lengthy.

 

I was standin' in lunch line at a small Bible Conference once where Dr. John Phillips was preachin'--just chit chattin' with a preacher buddy--when Dr. Phillips comes walking by!

I tell this buddy "I'm gonna meet Dr. Phillips!"

And so I do--and I had a chance to ask, "Dr. Phillips! Is there any advise you can give me as a preacher?" And here's what he said with that strong Brittish accent

"My dear friend! Keep buying my books!!"

You can come borrow any of my books you want in my library---but if you want to borrow the ones I have of him---bring your machine gun! And still I'm not sure you'll be able to breech my outer defenses!!

You start buyin' Dr. Phillips' books---readily available at any Christian bookstore--especially LifeWay--anyway, you start buyin' his books and I promise you---you'll not go wrong---but bring along at least two twenty dollar bills for one book--you'll get a little change back, but it won't be much!

Anything by Jerry Vines--I had a preacher buddy who retired and he gave me a few of Vines' books---you'd thought Blackbird just picked the lock to Fort Knox.

Your buddy,
Blackbird

 

One of my favorite preachers makes the point that it is more important to read great books and read them well than to read a great number of not great books.

Investigate what the great books are. Then get them as the foundation of your library.

Look at folks like John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, Brainerd, William Carey, A.Hudson, Hudson Taylor, etc... If you spend time at the beginning of your ministry immersed in the thinking of men like these, everything else you read will be challenged.

I would also, periodically, get copies of some good church surveys like those by Barna and Rainer. You'll have to have your filters on from time to time but if you don't read them, you will miss out on cultural trends to the point where you will always be in reaction, rather than pro-action, mode.

 

To add to USN2Pulpit's request...

...could you gentlemen also recommend some periodicals/journals that could also go into a pastor's library?

Thank you so much.

In Christ,
J5Grand

 

I've cut my journal budget heavily, but I do get the AAR and SBL journals as well as Review and Expositor.

Joshua

 

Jamal---

Periodical----"Growing Churches" by LifeWay

Can be ordered with regular sunday school literature

Blackbird

 

[ June 20, 2003, 07:06 AM: Message edited by: Jim1999 ]

 

For your computer, look for "The Master Christian Library" which contains over 500 diferent reference works on 2 CD's. These are classic works, which would cost thousands to get in print. In fact, many are currently out of print.
Includes works by Spurgeon, Moody, Wesley,some of Charles Hodge's commentaries, etc., etc,., etc.

If you can find any of Oliver Greene's works at a used book sale, they are great.

I had the privilege to hear John Phillips at the BBFI meeting in May, and I see why he is admired so much! I will never look at the "simple" phrase <<The earth is the Lord's>> from Psalm 24 as being so simple again! I had to acquire one of his books to add to my autographed book collection.

For a basic 2-volume commentary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary is good. Jamieson, Faussette [sp?] and Brown is also a good one, available in either 3 volumes, or a single volume condensed one.

Eddersheim's "Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah" is excellent.

The Macmillan Bible Atlas is good, has a map for almost every major event of the Bible, and some not so major ones.

This is a start. Happy hunting!!

 

Think the many suggestions of books already given will keep a avid reader busy for years

If looking fo good internet links, for web resources the best starting point i can think of is Phil Johnson's Bookmarks. It is actually more than just a set of bookmarks, is a short intro to the good, the bad, and the really bad theology available on the net. Gives great guidance and direction for those who are seeking the way through the net.
The link is:-
http://www.gty.org/~phil/bookmark.htm

Regards
Bob

 

just a thought on where to buy books. i saw CBD mentioned. and i like them...except for the shipping cost. i've just recently found that overstock.com actually has quite a bit of books that i want - and the prices are about like CBD's and the shipping is really cheep.

 

For used and out of print books, try
Kregel.com

They have over 200,000 titles on hand, with over 150,000 in a searchable database. If you don't find what you want, e-mail them and they will check for you.

 

For a journal, try the new "Baptist Preacher's Journal." It is designed for fundamental Baptists. Published by the Baptist Bible Tribune, Springfield, MO. I think the price is currently $7.00 per year.

http://www.tribune.org/journal/journal.shtml
www.bbfi.org