Whether you’re resolving to read more or simply hoping to grow as a leader, we hope some of the books on this list will be helpful to you.
By Marissa Postell Sullivan
Lifeway’s 2021 Greatest Needs of Pastors study found nearly half of pastors (47%) identify leadership as a skill they need to invest in. And one way to develop as a leader is to read books. As the saying goes, “Leaders are readers.”
In 2025, reading more is among the top 10 New Year’s resolutions among Americans, with 15% of Americans saying they are resolving to read more. Whether you’re among the 15% of Americans resolving to read more this year or simply hoping to grow as a leader, we hope some of the books on this list will be helpful to you.
We asked several leaders at Lifeway and friends of Lifeway for some reading recommendations for pastors and church leaders. Here’s what they suggested:
Becky Loyd, Lifeway’s vice president of go to market
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
The Power of Habit is a business book on “consumer behavior.” But it helps explain a lot about how people form habits that can be helpful or detrimental. This book gives church leaders some things to ponder about encouraging the right habits as they lead their congregations.
The Vision Driven Leader: 10 Questions to Focus Your Efforts, Energize Your Team, and Scale Your Business by Michael Hyatt
The Vision Driven Leader is another one I’d recommend for anyone trying to keep everyone on the same page about where an organization/church/business is headed. It’s inspirational, practical, and helps you think through how to develop and communicate vision to all parts of your organization.
Ben Mandrell, President and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources
A Passion For God: The Spiritual Journey of A. W. Tozer by Lyle Dorsett
This is one of the best biographies I’ve read in recent years. This isn’t your typical Christian biography where the main character is a picture of perfection. Tozer was a brilliant, eloquent, worshipful man but also a distant father and husband and a harsh prophetic critic.
The Voice of the Heart: A Call to Full Living by Chip Dodd
I never had a class in seminary on how to understand my God-given emotions. Dodd does a masterful job of walking through the core emotions we experience and explaining how to use them as a tool for good, without putting a coat of paint over all of life’s messiness.
Dan Darling, director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy. The Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization by Brad Wilcox
Social science data is affirming what we know: Marriage is a creational good for the flourishing of humanity. Across almost every category of society, stable family life is a major factor. Pastors should read this with conviction and determine to make healthy marriages and families a priority of their ministries.
Special Revelation and Scripture by David S. Dockery and Malcolm B. Yarnell III, edited by David S. Dockery, Nathan A. Finn, and Christopher W. Morgan
Is there a more important doctrine than a robust doctrine of Scripture? Dockery and Yarnell deliver a thorough, readable, exhaustive, and encouraging book that will solidify your confidence in the authority, inerrancy, and sufficiency of Scripture.
Daryl Crouch, executive director of Everyone’s Wilson
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever
While pastors want to be successful, we often chase unhealthy or unhelpful measures of success. This work by Mark Dever creates a clear and compelling biblical framework for church practices as well as the encouragement and tools to help pastors lead well.
Spiritual Leadership: Moving People on to God’s Agenda by Henry and Richard Blackaby
There’s no lack of voices telling us how to lead our churches, but the most important voice for us to hear is God’s. This classic work by the Blackabys cuts through the clamor and provides fresh clarity around what it means to help our congregations hear from and follow God.
Derwin Gray, pastor of Transformation Church in South Carolina
Wesley on the Christian Life: The Heart Renewed in Love by Fred Sanders
This book is a must-read for ministry leaders who long for a fresh, Spirit-filled passion in their lives and ministry. It will inspire and equip leaders to renew their own ministries, cultivating communities of love, transformation, and gospel-centered action that ripple out for generations.
Elizabeth Woodson, Bible teacher, theologian, author, and founder of The Woodson Institute
50 Core Truths of the Christian Faith: A Guide to Understanding and Teaching Theology by Greg Allison
This book covers many of the key doctrines of the Christian faith with clarity and accessibility. Each chapter provides a short explanation along with teaching outlines and descriptions of popular questions, errors, and resources for additional learning. It’s one of my most used “teacher toolbox” resources.
Strengthening The Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry by Ruth Haley Barton
Leadership is both beautiful and hard, and as we minister to others, sometimes our souls become spiritually malnourished. This book helps leaders do the slow and deep work of regaining their vision for ministry and life-giving connection with God.
Giancarlo Montemayor, Lifeway’s director of global ministry
The Leadership Formula by Juan Sanchez
I had the privilege of sitting under Juan’s teaching for six years when we pastored together. He taught me so much about leadership, and this book provides a simple way to understand the main components of Christian leadership.
Mark Croston, Lifeway’s director of Black church ministry
Big Results Leadership by Mark Croston
“What do I do next?” is a question raised by both new and tenured leaders. This book helps answer this question by looking at principles through the lives of leaders in the Bible, uncovering the keys to sustained, impactful leadership that produces big results.
Timeless Insights from the Book of Judges: How to Function in God’s Eternal Plan in a Compromising Culture by Brian Kennedy
Judges gives us powerful insights on how people and nations struggle with and without godly leadership. Kennedy has done a masterful job in helping us glean the eternal nuggets of truth we need for today.
Nora Allison, women’s minister and author
Deep Discipleship: How the Church Can Make Whole Disciples of Jesus by J.T. English
English provides a much-needed blueprint for doing what the church is called to but often distracted from doing—making disciples. Included is not only the content for helping men and women grow to spiritual maturity, but the explanation of how to do so.
You Are a Theologian: An Invitation to Know and Love God Well by J.T. English and Jen Wilkin
Here is a truly beneficial resource for church leaders to help those in their congregations who have shied away from theology learn to know and talk about God more accurately, live their lives with greater understanding of God’s ways, and grow in curiosity to know Him better.
Steve Cuss, author and pastor
Friedman’s Fables by Edwin Friedman
As a decades long Friedman nerd, I always point people to his best book, a collection of playful and provocative fables written to show how anxiety works in relationships. Friedman is a rabbi, and all the benefits of the rabbinical approach are on display in this book: imagination, provocation, and wisdom.
In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri Nouwen
In this slim gem, Nouwen captures the essence of leadership. He fleshes out the primary temptations of a leader by engaging us in a Scriptural study on temptation. He lets us in on his own leadership in a beautiful story of him co-laboring with a developmentally disabled travel companion.
Trevin Wax, vice president for research and resource development at the North American Mission Board
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
Haidt’s book paints a grim picture of the generational challenges inherent in the smartphone era. But his perspective provides hope because he shows we can, collectively, make decisions to shift the window of acceptability in educational outcomes, family life, and the restoration of play.
The Lord of Psalm 23: Jesus Our Shepherd, Companion, and Host by David Gibson
Gibson’s careful, contemplative treatment of one of the best-known psalms provides a rich devotional experience that left me longing to linger with the Lord. This little book deserves a place on the shelf as an example of the best devotional literature of the first quarter of this century.
Y Bonesteele, team leader of The Gospel Project for adults
Telling a Better Story: How to Talk About God in a Skeptical Age by Joshua D. Chatraw
Chatraw does a good job reminding us to be good listeners as well as communicators, and in so doing, we are better at sharing the gospel in a clearer way that is respectful to the community around us but still bold in our proclamation of Christ.
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Lewis’s insights into the human mind are uncanny, insightful, and terrifying as they depict how easily our thoughts stray away from God and how the devil can tempt us. Although it is fiction, many of the themes are useful for discussion among Christians and non-Christians alike.
For permission to republish this article, contact Marissa Postell Sullivan.
