The Top 17 Books Christian Leaders Should Be Reading In 2017

With Christmas fast approaching, I want to provide you a wonderful list of resources to get the leaders in your life.  Below are 17 books written by some of today’s top Christian leaders.  These will inspire, equip and challenge all Christian leaders.  Make sure you check out each one!

The following are 17 Books Christian Leaders Should Be Reading In 2017 listed in alphabetical order by author.  Simply click the hot link on their names to learn more and order your copies.

1. Chasing The Light: 90 Devotions & Photos To Grow Your Faith by Dave Adamson.  I first introduce Aussie Dave to this audience in the post The #1 Christian Leader Everyone Should Follow On Instagram And Why.  But what do you do when your youngest daughter loves God and the Bible, but struggles with dyslexia? Dave, a former magazine editor and TV sports reporter, decided to use his passion for photography to help his little girl. He started using photos he had taken around the world to teach her the Bible . . . and watched her face light up!  Now thousands of faces light up each because of Dave’s work.
2. Unreasonable Churches: 10 Churches Who Zagged When Others Zigged And Saw More Impact Because Of It by Rich Birch.  The book I am most looking forward to reading in 2017.  In an era when 94% of churches are losing ground against the growth of the communities they serve, there is a new breed of churches who buck the trend. This book tells to stories of 10 churches who stopped copying the models of other churches and tried something new. You’ll be inspired to consider how your church could see great impact by blazing new trails!
3. Comeback: It’s Not Too Late And You’re Never Too Far by Louie Giglio.  This book  celebrates new beginnings. It offers encouragement and perspective, and it’s for you if you feel frustrated or confused, if you’re sorrowing or in pain, if you’ve made mistakes or are grieving, if you’re disappointed or feel as though life doesn’t make sense.
4. The Carpenter: A Story About The Greatest Success Strategies Of All by Jon Gordon.  Drawing upon his work with countless leaders, sales people, professional and college sports teams, non-profit organizations and schools, Jon shares an entertaining and enlightening story that will inspire you to build a better life, career, and team with the greatest success strategies of all.
5. Gaining By Losing: Why The Future Belongs To Churches That Send by J.D. Greear.  In this book Greear unpacks ten plumb lines that you can use to reorient your church’s priorities around God’s mission to reach a lost world. The good news is that you don’t need to choose between gathering or sending. Effective churches can, and must, do both.
6. Simplify: Ten Practices To Unclutter Your Soul by Bill Hybels.  This is the book I am currently reading.  Exhausted. Overwhelmed. Overscheduled. Sound familiar? Today’s velocity of life can consume and control us, until our breakneck pace begins to feel normal and expected. That’s where the danger lies: When we spend our lives doing things that keep us busy but don t really matter, we sacrifice the things that do. What if your life could be different? What if you could be certain you were living the life God called you to live and building a legacy for those you love? If you crave a simpler life anchored by the priorities that matter most, roll up your sleeves and read this book.
7. Stronger: How Hard Times Reveal God’s Greatest Power by Clayton King.  With insights born from his own difficult journey, Clayton offers readers a truly liberating understanding of weakness and suffering–not as God’s punishment, but as his pruning.
8. The Ideal Team Player: How To Recognize And Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues by Patrick Lencioni.  In his classic book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni laid out a groundbreaking approach for tackling the perilous group behaviors that destroy teamwork. Here he turns his focus to the individual, revealing the three indispensable virtues of an ideal team player.  To read notes from Patrick teaching on this book, click 2016 Leadership Summit – 42 Leadership Quotes From Patrick Lencioni.
9. Be Mean About The Vision: Preserving And Protecting What Matters by Shawn Lovejoy.  Shawn challenges leaders to stay true to the vision—regaining and sustaining its trajectory over time. Lovejoy offers a proven strategy for relentlessly protecting our organization’s guiding vision:
   • Develop a vision people are willing to die for
   • Keep the vision alive in us
   • Align everyone around the vision
   • Keep the vision from being compromised or even hijacked
10. Streamline: How To Create Healthy Church Systems by Michael Lukaszewski.  I am not going to give a long explanation of this book.  Simply put, it is the best book on church systems I have ever read.  If you want your church to be more effective, buy this book today!
11. The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views On Success In Sports And Life by St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny.  The best sports book I read in 2016.  The tough-love philosophy Matheny expressed in the letter contained his throwback beliefs that authority should be respected, discipline and hard work rewarded, spiritual faith cultivated, family made a priority, and humility considered a virtue. In this book, he builds on his original letter by first diagnosing the problem at the heart of youth sports−hint: it starts with parents and coaches−and then by offering a hopeful path forward.
12. Intentional Living: Choosing A Life That Matters by John Maxwell.  The only thing you need to achieve significance is to be intentional. And to do that, all you need to do is start. You can’t make an impact sitting still and doing nothing. Every major accomplishment that’s ever been achieved started with a first step. Sometimes it’s hard; other times it’s easy, but no matter what, you have to do it if you want to get anywhere in life.  In this book, John will help you take that first step, and the ones that follow, on your personal path through a life that matters.
13. God Breathed: The Undeniable Power And Reliability Of Scripture by Josh McDowell. “God said, ‘Let there be. . .’ ” And when God spoke, things happened. Recapture the awe, the mystery, the passion and power of scripture in God-Breathed—where you’ll personally experience a life transformed by the One who spoke everything into existence, including you.
14. The Conviction To Lead: 25 Principles For Leadership That Matters by Al Mohler. Using his own experiences and examples from history, Dr. Mohler demonstrates that real leadership is a transferring of conviction to others, affecting their actions, motivations, intuition, and commitment. This practical guide walks the reader through what a leader needs to know, do, and be in order to affect change.
15. Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic For A Simpler, More Soulful Way Of Living by Shauna Niequist.  Written in Shauna’s warm and vulnerable style, this collection of essays focuses on the most important transformation in her life, and maybe yours too: leaving behind busyness and frantic living and rediscovering the person you were made to be. Shauna describes this book as a hand reaching out, pulling you free from the constant pressure to perform faster, push harder, and produce more, all while maintaining an exhausting image of perfection.
16. The Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, And The World by Pete Scazzero.  In this best-selling book Scazzero shows leaders how to develop a deep, inner life with Christ, examining its profound implications for surviving stress, planning and decision making, building teams, creating healthy culture, influencing others, and much more.
17. Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, And Lonely by Lysa TerKeurst.  The enemy wants us to feel rejected . . . left out, lonely, and less than. Lysa shares her own deeply personal experiences of rejection–from the perceived judgment of the perfectly toned woman one elliptical over to the incredibly painful childhood abandonment by her father. She leans in to honestly examine the roots of rejection, as well as rejection’s ability to poison relationships from the inside out, including our relationship with God.

Finally as a bonus, it may be slightly self-serving but my book 10 Indispensable Practices Of The 2-Minute Leader is a must for leaders wishing to accomplish the vision God has placed in your heart.  Perfect for developing your church’s or business leaders in small group or one-on-one environments.  Electronic copies can be purchased by clicking HERE.  Hard-cover and study guides can be ordered by clicking HERE.

Click HERE or on the image to the left for a FREE copy of my new Ebook 1269 Leadership Quotes: Timeless Truths From 2016’s Top Christian Leadership Conferences.  Featured are the Johnny Hunt Mens Conference, ReThink Leadership, Orange and Leadercast Conferences among others.  If applied, these insights will make you an exponentially better leader.  Enjoy!!!