Here are the 11 books I read in June. This brings my 2023 total to 55 books halfway through the year.

This was an odd, but great, reading month. The last book I read May was one I really enjoyed – A Dream About Lightening Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons by Ben Folds. There is a certain joy and sadness when you turn the last page of a good book. I wanted to immediately experience the feeling again. So I picked up a favorite book. And then another. And then another. I ended up finishing 7 books I consider favorites. I finished another 4 first time reads in the month. Happy reading!

(I must always clarify that I read many books with which I disagree. I learn the most by reading things that do not represent my position.)

Too Great a Temptation: The Seductive Power of America’s Super Church by Joel Gregory

This book never grows old. I’ve read it well over a dozen times. It opens with my favorite opening line:

First Baptist Church of Dallas sits at the intersection where the Way of the Cross intersects the American dream – Via Dolorosa at Wall Street. Such an intersection has no stoplights, not even a yield sign. Where the road to the cross and the road to success meet there can be a head-on collision between a man’s ambition and his desire to serve God. I know.

The memoir chronicles Gregory’s brief tenure as pastor of First Baptist Dallas. Preachers can mine gold from each page. Those who know the backstory might label the book as a pool of sour grapes. I disagree.

Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making by Andrew Peterson

I appreciate Peterson as songwriter, non-fiction writer, fiction writer, and creator of community. I recently mailed him a copy of my book, Stained-Glass Disciples. It contained a simple note: “I’ve been blessed by your work. May you be blessed by mine.” Just my attempt to say “Thank you.”

This volume is part memoir of Peterson’s musical journey and part advice for those who create. It is a personal meandering through a variety of topics and life experiences. I love every page.

The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom by Andrew Peterson

Like the other Peterson volume listed above, this book is hard to define. In short, it is a book about trees. Yet, it is so much more. Is it a memoir? Is it a book on creation theology? Is it a hobby book? It is filled with Peterson’s stories and sketches of trees, stories about Peterson’s home, and stories about the God of the Creation.

From the books promotional material: “There’s a strong biblical connection between people and trees. They both come from dirt. They’re both told to bear fruit. In fact, arboreal language is so often applied to humans that it’s easy to miss, whether we’re talking about family trees, passing along our seed, cutting someone off like a branch, being rooted to a place, or bearing the fruit of the Spirit. It’s hard to deny that trees mean something, theologically speaking.” Does that describe the book? No. But perhaps it helps.

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen

Nouwen combines my love for Biblical studies and art. He provides insight on both Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son and Rembrandt’s depiction of the story. My copy is worn, tattered, and graffitied with marginal notes. Reading it after a dozen previous reads, I’m tempted to underline all the portions not currently underlined. The entire book is worthy of a yellow highlighter.

In Jesus Name: Reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri Nouwen

This can be read in an hour but requires weeks (if not more) of reflection. The book is a lecture Nouwen provided to a group that asked him to speak on Christian leadership in the 21st century. The lecture came after Nouwen’s academic career at Notre Dame, Yale and Harvard. When he delivered this leadership manifesto, he was in his second year serving as a priest at Daybreak in Toronto, a L’Arche community for those will an intellectual disability. He brought Bill with him to give the lecture. No more spoilers.

Nouwen focuses on the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness to make his remarks on leadership. He presents three common temptations to those in leadership: the temptation to be relevant, the temptation to be spectacular, and the temptation to be powerful. He combats each temptation with a spiritual discipline: the discipline of contemplative prayer, the discipline of confession and forgiveness, and the discipline of theological reflection. I can’t recommend this one highly enough.

Send Out Your Light: The Illuminating Power of Scripture and Song by Sandra McCracken

This is a slow walking memoir on the creative process. McCracken shares encounters and insights from Scripture and reveals how those truths impact her songwriting and make way into her songs. The type of book I devour in a sitting or two. This is now my second reading of this book. There will be many more to come.

Here is New York by EB White

Yes, this is E.B. White from Charlotte’s Web fame. It is a reflective essay on the ever-changing New York City.  Published in 1949, the references are dated but the sentiment portrayed in the prose still resonates.  In a mere 7,500 words, White provides a running commentary on restaurants, neighborhoods, people, lifestyles, and a tree in a garden.  The prose is a bit majestic.  Here’s a taste:

“New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gifts of privacy.  It is this largess that accounts for the presence within the city’s walls of a considerable section of the population; for the residents of Manhattan are to a large extent strangers who have pulled up stakes somewhere and come to town, seeking sanctuary or fulfillment or some greater or lesser gail. The capacity to make such dubious gifts is a mysterious quality of New York.  It can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill him, depending a good deal on luck.  No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky.”

Struck: One Christian’s Reflections on Encountering Death by Russ Ramsey

This book begins the four new reads for the month. This volume is a slender, but powerful, reflection on Ramsey’s open-heart surgery. I fully admit – I cried twice before I reached the final page. This is not a work of theology, but then again, it’s better than many works of theology. Ramsey speaks of life and death in the proper Christian context.

The Best Intentions: How a Plan to Revitalize the SBC Accelerated Its Decline by Charles Kelley

Kelley is the former president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. His Southern Baptist credentials make this a stinging critique. He offers a 10-year assessment of the Great Commission Resurgence. He argues that a plan intended to revitalize the SCC failed. Even worse, he argues it accelerated the convention’s decline. The book is full of insider baseball. It is worth the read for those who care.

Fraudulent Authority: Pastors Who Seek to Rule Over Others by Wade Burleson

This is a strange little volume. Burleson is a recently retired pastor in Oklahoma. I have enjoyed his online writing for years. I actually watched him online teach through the content of this book while he was still in the pulpit. I had no idea he had self-published the material.

Burleson, at many points in the book, takes an extremely narrow view. His ultimate argument is that nowhere in the New Testament does it say that a Christian leader, because of title or position, has moral authority over another Christian. Burleson leaves that to Christ alone. I don’t disagree but when offered specific examples, Burleson’s interpretation is narrow. He says, “Evangelical men should want to serve all and rule over none.” I get that, but he goes one to say, “The #1 problem in the evangelical church revolves around the desire of evangelical men to grab hold of spiritual authority in the church.” He makes a good point and then takes it to the extreme. I can think of a few dozen bigger problems than his #1.

Crazy for Rivers by Bill Barich

I stumbled on this book at the sale rack in my local library. I picked it up and donated a few bucks. Having recently finished Goodbye to a River by John Graves, I was thrilled to find another literary work about muddy water. Barich skillfully discusses his obsession with rivers and fly fishing. The book is not for everybody but it sure is for me. Even though I’ve never touched a fly rod.