This year's top reads

I read a lot of books this year based on recommendations of other bloggers so most of these won't be a big surprise to anyone, but this is what I liked this year...

Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath: I'm not quite through this one but it is great. I'd love to take a class from the authors and complete assignments to put their principles into practice.

Seven Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Lane Jones, and Reggie Joiner by Andy Stanley. Our team read this together and it definitely lived up to the hype. It was perfect for where our team was this year: a new leader, several new staff members, and a newly articulated church-wide vision.

A Life of Faith Collection by Martha Finley and Kersten Hamilton. Historical fiction for girls with a heavy emphasis on principles of Christian living. I read this with a lot of skepticism since it was billed as a "Christian American Girls" series. We love the American Girls series at our house and I bristled at the thought of Christians trying to do their own version of it. It turns out that these stories pre-date American Girls. The characters Elsie, Violet, Millie, Laylie got under my skin (in a good way). They are really sweet and have great spiritual lessons for girls. I read them all and can't wait to share them with my girls in the next couple of years.

Revolutionary Parenting: What the Research Shows Really Works by George Barna. I blogged about this earlier this year. This follow up to his Spiritual Champions books was fantastic. Huge ministry application as well as a challenge to work harder in my own parenting!

The Big Idea: Focus the Message-multiply the Impact by Dave Ferguson, Eric Bramlett, and Jon Ferguson. I'm a big fan of the ministry of these guys at Community Christian Church in Illinois. Their kids ministry director has a blog about multi-site that has taught me a lot. I was challenged by their premise about picking one key idea to communicate each week. Plan ahead, share resources, reach all groups within the church with the same message. Very cool. I loved peeking into their creative process!

The Fabulous Reinvention of Sunday School: Transformational Techniques for Reaching and Teaching Kids by Aaron Reynolds. Just some really practical stuff that can be put into practice immediately to improve the quality of large group programming. I'm so excited that he's coming to Minneapolis in January. I'm making the across-town drive to hear him!

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones and Jago. This is an incredible kids Bible story book that points to our need for a savior and God's plan to send a rescuer in every story. The language is fresh and kid-friendly. The illustrations are fresh too - not cutesy and not old-fashioned either. We read this as a family and I loved it as much as the kids did! I can see using this as curriculum in a kids worship setting!