The Pastor's Bookshelf

<P><B><I>Preaching Magazine</I> </B>Book of the Year (2022)<BR /><B>Hearts & Minds</B> Best Books List (2022)<BR /><B><I>Christianity Today </I></B>Award of Merit in Church & Pastoral Leadership (2023)<BR /><BR /><B>It’s time to give pastors permission to read books besides the Bible.</B>  </P><P> Six months into his first senior pastorate Austin Carty sat in his office reading—not the Bible not a commentary not a theological tract but a novel<I> </I>by Fyodor Dostoevsky. As the minutes turned to hours while he sat engrossed in this book he noticed something: he began feeling uneasy. And then anxious. And then <I>guilty</I>. What would someone think if they opened the door and caught him reading <I>fiction</I>?  </P><P> For busy pastors (is there any other kind?) time spent reading feels hard to justify especially when it’s not for sermon prep. But what if reading felt less like a luxury and more like a vocational responsibility—a spiritual practice that bears fruit in every aspect of ministry from preaching to pastoral care to church leadership?  </P><P> Austin Carty believes that this is exactly how pastors ought to think about reading. <I>The Pastor’s Bookshelf</I> shows how worthwhile reading is more about<I> formation </I>than <I>in</I>formation and how through reading a pastor becomes a fuller more enriched human being with a deeper capacity for wisdom and love better equipped to understand and work for God’s kingdom. </P>