Our Top 11 Summer Reading Bucket List

Summer affords many opportunities for reading, perhaps more than any other season of the year. To help you take advantage of those times, we’ve compiled our top recommended books for your summer reading. Think of it as a bucket list for ‘Must Read’ books. Which ones will make your bucket list this summer?

FAULT LINES (Voddie Bauchum, Jr.)

Fault Lines explains the sinister worldview behind the social justice movement and Critical Race Theory—revealing how it already has infiltrated some seminaries, leading to internal denominational conflict, canceled careers, and lost livelihoods. Like a fault line, it threatens American culture in general—and the evangelical church.

Whether you’re a layperson who has woken up in a strange new world and wonders how to engage sensitively and effectively in the conversation on race or a pastor who is grappling with a polarized congregation, this book offers the clarity and understanding to either hold your ground or reclaim it.

THE OTHER HALF OF CHURCH (Michel Hendricks and Dr. Jim Wilder

Do you understand how the brain works and how its God-given functions correspond to church life? Have you wondered what might be missing from your church community that would make it vibrant and transformational (meaning people truly grow and change)? Read The Other Half of Church and take your whole brain to church! 

PITCHIN’ A FIT: OVERCOMING ANGRY AND STRESSED OUT PARENTING  (Israel Wayne)

Few parents set out to become yelling meanies who no longer enjoy their children. How does one become an angry parent? Can parents lose the anger and mend strained relationships with their children? Pitchin’ a Fit provides parents with hope and freedom from the tyranny of stressed-out and angry parenting and solutions for helping children overcome anger.

THE SOLUTION OF CHOICE  (Dr. Marcus Warner and Dr. Jim Wilder)

Christians who fail to understand church history will inevitably lack understanding and perspective on why they, and other Christians, do what they do in the here and now. In this brief but thought-provoking book, Warner and Wilder contend that few people today are aware the church made a sharp left turn five hundred years ago in response to the Enlightenment. The Solution of Choice expounds on the shift it created skewing what the church has offered as solutions for character change that have not worked and offers solutions to overcome what has neutralized the church.

DURABLE TRADES: FAMILY-CENTERED ECONOMIES THAT HAVE STOOD THE TEST OF TIME (Rory Groves)

The political, moral, and economic shifts in America have brought millions to a quandary. Is this a temporal season to endure or a cataclysmic and permanent change? Will it get worse, and if so, how will I sustain my family relationally, morally, and financially? In Durable Trades, Groves unpacks the Industrial Revolution and masterfully demonstrates the parallels to our time. Then, he uncovers family-centered professions that have endured the worst upheavals in history and continue to thrive today. Through careful research and thoughtful commentary, he offers another way forward to those looking for a more durable future.

Getting back to the Immanuel approach: as just mentioned, we have discovered several simple tools that enable most people to consistently perceive God’s presence in some tangible way, and then to establish an adequate interactive connection with his living presence. And this interactive connection with God then provides the context for engaging directly with the Lord, so that he can help the person to access her traumatic memories and finish the remedial processing tasks. 

4-HABITS OF RAISING JOY-FILLED KIDS (Chris Coursey and Marcus Warner)

Wouldn’t it be great if someone wrote a simple, short book for parents on how to raise their kids to become happy, confident, and productive adults that anyone could do? Coursey and Warner make it as simple as ABCD. The 4-Habits of Raising Joy-Filled Kids shows you how to attuned to your child, help them bounce back, correct them with care, and help them build life disciplines, guiding them on their way to the mature adulthood that every parent has in mind.

OUTSMARTING YOURSELF (Dr. Karl Lehman)

Ever wonder why you sometimes don’t like the people you love? Why some disagreements seem impossible to resolve? Why certain small problems are so upsetting? And what can you do about it? Outsmarting Yourself provides realistic, psychologically sound, and Christ-centered tools for becoming a joyful, life-giving person with thriving relationships. 

LAMB OF GOD: REDISCOVERING THE BEAUTY OF ATONEMENT (David Takle)

Shocking as it may sound, most Christians today have never heard the cross explained in the way it was commonly understood and proclaimed by the early Church. In Lamb of God, you will find a portrait of atonement that is far more beautiful and far more compelling than most popular renditions of the gospel today – one that not only demonstrates the amazing depth of God’s love for us but also provides the very power we need in order to be set free from sin.

CHAINED – THE PURE LINE SERIES 1 (Alyson Jensen)

When armed madmen threaten an impoverished town, Adrian meets the fighters – a secret group of warriors who call themselves the Defense – and he joins the fight but more for the chance to redeem his past than help others. The main character gains new friends who urge him towards the Creator even as the enemy unveils temptations to lead him astray. Chained is the first in a seven-book series that will have you seeing yourself in the story. Will you, like Adrian Faulkner, be willing to do what it takes to break the chains of your past? Or will you be chained forever?

BRAIN SAVVY LEADERS (Dr. Charles Stone)

Brain science complements and reinforces Christian teaching on life and leadership; Brain-Savvy Leaders equips readers to use that science as a tool for improvement for life and for the church. Written in layperson’s language, with memory-boosting illustrations and acronyms, readers learn to increase productivity, handle stress, create and sustain healthy teams, and manage change in the church. 

LIVING FROM THE HEART JESUS GAVE YOU (Bierling, Friesen, Koepcke, Poole, Wilder)

Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You provides uncommon wisdom about how people can become their true self, the person God has always meant them to be. These authors introduce the Life Model, which incorporates maturity, recovery, and community.  The results? When applied, the model consistently produces spiritually-minded, relationally connected, emotionally mature followers of Christ. There are multiple reasons this book has sold over 100K copies worldwide!

So there you have it! Now, which books will make your bucket list this summer?