EN's top 5 books for leaders 2023

en Reviews Editor John Woods considers which of the 102 books we've reviewed this year will best serve Christian leaders. 

1. Remaking History: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian World.

By Andrew Wilson | Read full review here. 

Andrew Wilson uses the year 1776 as a lens to view how modern history has been shaped. The two final chapters of application propose that the Church must rediscover its core identity as a people saved by grace and displaying grace, fostering true freedom, and proclaiming liberating truth.

2. Rumours of a Better Country: Searching for Trust and Community in a Time of Moral Outrage 

By Marsh Moyle | Read full review here. 

Whether you are preacher, a church leader or a member of the congregation, we all need to have a big vision of what it means to be a Christian in our times. This year we have been treated to two substantial books that have done this. The first was Chris Watkin’s blockbuster Biblical Critical Theory, the second was Remaking The World by Andrew Wilson. I would place this book as a worthy companion to those wide-ranging and penetrating volumes. 

3. The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis

By Karen Swallow Prior | Interview soon to be published. 

In this book, Karen Swallow Prior examines evangelical history - analyzing the literature, art, and popular culture that has surrounded evangelicalism.

4. Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation

By Collin Hansen | Read full review here.

It starts like a normal biography with some family details, but the rest of the book makes only passing reference to his personal life, instead focusing on the influential tributaries that have shaped his thinking and practice. I recommend the book not least for a brief sketch of the recent history of evangelicalism.

4. Sermons from the Schemes

Edited by Mez McConnell | Read full review here.

Those preaching in a deprived area or who have a sprinkling of ‘working class’ people in their congregation will find this book invaluable. This book is not a series of the coal-face Sunday sermons from the growing network of 20 Schemes churches. What is on offer here is a set of stimulating messages to help readers be more intentional in thinking about how to do church, and how to preach God’s word with a sensitivity to both the context of Scripture and the context of the hearer.

See also EN's top 5 reads for 2023, here.