13 Books for Pastors

This is a list of 13 books for pastors and church leaders.

When suggested reading lists are put forward, I often wonder what the goal is: To impress people with the authors and titles? To try to pick obscure titles to establish the unique nature of the list? To demonstrate depth of knowledge or intellectual acumen? To try to be exhaustive?

In picking books for pastors and church leaders, I have one goal in mind: a short list of indicative books that will actually serve a pastor or church as they pastor and lead. These are not the only books that should be read; they are not intended to be the books that round out a theological education in terms of church history, exegesis, language studies or theology proper. 

But when it comes to the day-in, day-out practice of leading and serving, these are among the first books I would put in the hands of someone engaged in the practice of ministry that will help them with the actual practice of that ministry. Books that, if you haven’t read, you should. And when you do, you will gain immediate benefit from every page. From reading to message prep, surviving emotionally to personal disciplines, these books will serve you well.

They have certainly served me.

Adler, Mortimer. How to Read a Book. It was required reading from my doctoral supervisor, and I made it required reading for my graduate students as well. It should be required reading for anyone who needs to read widely, read well, but not waste time reading a book in ways the book does not actually deserve.

Cloud, Henri and John Townsend. Safe People. Anyone in vocational ministry has heard the old line, “Church work would be great if it weren’t for the people.” But the cause of Christ is about people. This is the first of two books on the list about how to deal with people with the grace and love they deserve, but also the self-protection needed to survive to tell about it. Learning the marks of safe and unsafe people and the boundaries necessary to erect around your life is simply invaluable for a marathon stretch of ministry.

Collins, Jim. Built to Last; Good to Great. Two of the best books on organizational leadership (and the church is both an organism and an organization) were written by someone who, to my knowledge, is not yet a professing Christian, and who did not write his books with the church in mind. Nonetheless, these two are modern-day classics on leadership effectiveness for the church.

de Sales, Francis. An Introduction to the Devout Life. I used to wonder why this book by de Sales was so life-giving to me in terms of my devotional life. Then I stumbled upon something C.S. Lewis wrote about de Sales being his spiritual mentor, and I knew how much Lewis had meant to me as a writer. The spiritual life of a leader is paramount, and this book is a devotional classic that has stood the test of time and is written from the trenches of ministry. Yes, you have to wade through the “Catholic” dynamics of his own ministerial moorings, but it is not difficult to do—and is very much worth the journey. A thousand and one books on a leader’s inner world could have been added, and rightfully so, but I forced myself to pick just one.

MacDonald, Gordon. Ordering Your Private World. Written by a pastor, from the front lines of pastoring, on how to build the disciplines and practices necessary for ordering a life around Christ and vocation. 

Nouwen, Henri. The Wounded Healer. The premise is simple—every pastor and church leader is a wounded healer. The sooner this is understood, the better. We serve a suffering world, a suffering generation, filled with suffering people, as fellow sufferers ourselves. 

Peters, Tom and Robert Waterman. In Search of Excellence. When first released in the early ’80s, this landmark book opened new vistas for leadership by detailing the eight key principles of management and leadership from America’s best-run companies. What sets the “excellent” companies apart from others is often what sets “excellent” churches apart from others. 

Shelley, Marshall. Well-Intentioned Dragons. A second book for the challenges of working with people. Shelley gives words and stories, labels and strategies, needed for working with difficult people – the “dragons” – who all too often have no idea they are dragons at all.

Stott, John R.W. Between Two Worlds; Guarding the Truth. Two of the most helpful books for church leaders were written by Stott. The first, Between Two Worlds, is about the art of effective communication—bridging the biblical world and the world of the listener. The second is one of the most helpful expositions of the pastoral epistles I’ve read (specifically I Timothy and Titus), dealing with some of the most basic and timeless challenges every leader will face when leading a church. 

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Church. I don’t think anyone has packaged the effective practice of ministry better than Rick Warren. You don’t have to embrace all things “purpose-driven” to mine this book for nugget after nugget of pure gold on how to “do” church.

White, James Emery. What They Didn’t Teach You in Seminary. Straight from the “shameless commerce division” comes one of my own. But I so believe in this book. It holds 40-plus years of insights and learnings that, to date, are still not often taught during seminary.

Are there others you would have put on the list? Eugene Peterson’s The Pastor? Helmut Thielicke’s A Little Exercise for Young Theologians? Let me stop before I start... I doubt I will argue with a single suggestion.

James Emery White