Pastor Writer: Conversations on Reading, Writing, and the Christian Life

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Each year, as Christmas comes around, I sit down to make a list of the ten books that most impacted my thinking in the previous year. It’s an interesting exercise for anyone to do. I look through my amazon orders, my bookshelves, and my audible account and I try to recognize the books that impacted me most. In this episode, you'll find a list and explanation of those 10 books.I’d also love to hear what you’ve been reading. Maybe you would create your own list and share it with me. Post it in the Insider’s Facebook group or on social media.Books, and authors who write them, depend on us talking bout them and sharing them. So let’s do it. What did you read that impacted you most in 2021? I can’t wait to hear about it and maybe add some books to my reading list for 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Preston Ulmer, founder of the Doubters’ Club, is passionate about fostering friendship between Christians and atheists. He shares insights on creating empathetic dialogues that encourage understanding and connection amid differing beliefs. Ulmer discusses the need for churches to adapt to cultural shifts and engage meaningfully with skeptics through initiatives like his Doubters’ Club. He emphasizes practical strategies for nurturing faith conversations, moving beyond traditional conversion tactics to build authentic relationships.

Tom Nelson is president of Made to Flourish (MTF), a network that seeks to empower pastors to lead churches that produce human flourishing for the common good. He has also served as senior pastor of Christ Community Church in Leawood, Kansas, for almost thirty years.A council member for The Gospel Coalition, Tom is the author of Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work, Five Smooth Stones: Discovering the Path to Wholeness of Soul, and Ekklesia: Rediscovering God’s Design for the Church. He speaks regularly on faith, work, and economics.He joins me today to talk about his book, soon to release, The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership. It's out from IVP December 14. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lee Strobel is a former award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune and a New York Times best-selling author of more than forty books that have sold fourteen million copies in total.He currently serves as Founding Director of the Lee Strobel Center for Evangelism and Applied Apologetics at Colorado Christian University.Lee has been described in the Washington Post as “one of the evangelical community’s most popular apologists.”You probably know him best for the Case for Christ. Lee has won national awards for his books The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, The Case for a Creator, and The Case for Grace. His latest books are The Case for Miracles and the one he joins me to talk about today, The Case for Heaven. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ERIC METAXAS is a #1 bestselling author whose books have been translated into twenty-five languages. The host of a nationally syndicated radio show and the acclaimed conversation series Socrates in the City, he is a prominent cultural commentator whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, The Atlantic, and the Wall Street Journal. He lives with his family in New York City.He joined me to talk about his new book, Is Atheism Dead? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gary Schnittjer teaches biblical Hebrew and Old Testament for the School of Divinity at (CArn) Cairn University. He is the author of the new book, Old Testament Use of Old Testament. It is a reference book for students and ministers of the word with chapters on every book of the Old Testament as well as a chapter on looking “Toward the New Testament.”He is currently doing research for writing projects under contract with Baker Academic, B&H Academic, and Zondervan Academic. He is also finishing work on the second edition of Torah Story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Todd Miles is Professor of Theology at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches theology, church history, hermeneutics, and ethics. Prior to becoming a seminary professor, he was a nuclear engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.He joined me to talk about his new book, Cannabis and the Christian: What the Bible Says about marijuana.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pastor Ray Ortlund was ordained into the Christian ministry in 1975.  He taught Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School from 1989 to 1998.  His primary ministry, for 28 years, has been as a pastor in California, Oregon, Georgia and Tennessee.In addition to numerous essays and articles, Pastor Ortlund has published eight books. Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel, was named “2017 Christian Book of the Year” in the category Bible Study.He also served as an Old Testament translator for The New Living Translation and The English Standard Version of the Bible.  He contributed the introduction and study notes to the book of Isaiah in The ESV Study Bible.He is also the President of Renewal Ministries and serves on the Council of The Gospel Coalition.He joins me today to talk about his new book out this month, The Death of Porn: Men of Integrity Building a World of Nobility. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alan Bandy a Professor of New Testament and Greek at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.Previously, he was the Assistant Director of the Ph.D. program at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and an Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at Louisiana College.Alan's area of expertise is the New Testament with a specialization in The Apocalypse of John.He has published The Prophetic Lawsuit in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament Monograph Series. He co-authored a book entitled Understanding Prophecy: A Biblical-Theological Approach.He has edited and compiled the notes for the Greek Reader's Apostolic Fathers.And he has also published several chapters and articles in various books (including Devotions on the Greek New Testament, Holy War in the Old Testament, and The Baker Dictionary of Biblical Backgrounds.He has recently released the Baker Illustrated Life and Ministry of the Apostle Paul a book he joins me today to talk about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices