Does it mean I’m getting old that my memory is a little hazy? When I think back to the very beginning of the radical change that has happened in my life over the past 6+ years, I really don’t remember exactly when it started. But I do remember what started it.
I read a book.
Books are dangerous things, aren’t they?! They have such power to inform and educate, encourage and inspire, challenge and convict. They can be so-so-good-I-don’t-want-to-put-it-down and at the same time I-can’t-read-one-more-word-of-this-or-I-really-believe-my-head-might-explode.
Oh, I do love a good book!
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And I have an especially fond place in my heart for six books that completely challenged my paradigms, changed my worldview, and basically rocked my world. In a really, really good and amazing and Spirit-led way.
Yet in a completely scary way too! Because they moved me out of my comfortable little world and into a place that is much more unknown and uncomfortable and where I often feel like I have no idea what I’m doing!
More than any others, these books have truly shaped the person that I am and am becoming today. And as I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and soul-searching lately (more than usual anyway) I’ve been thinking about these books and the unbelievable impact they made on my life. And I thought about you guys, my readers, and knew I needed to share them with you too in case you haven’t read any of them yet.
If you’ve been searching for some deeper meaning for your life and your faith, or you’ve been feeling discontent with church and religion and maybe even felt like giving up on your faith, I would strongly encourage you to put these books at the top of your reading list ASAP. But be prepared… these books are serious game-changers!
I’m listing these books in the order I read them (as well as I can remember!) You don’t have to read them in this order, but I feel like the order was significant for me, because each one built on some of the truths I learned and paradigm shifts I made from reading the previous book.
6 Books That Have Changed My Life
1. The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne
I’m pretty sure I read this book because it was recommended to me by my little sister Laura, who is eight years younger than me, but has recommended some of the best books I’ve ever read. I don’t remember why I decided to, but I checked it out from the library. This book was my very first glimpse into a Christian faith that looked incredibly different than the conservative evangelical church culture I was raised in.
My eyes were opened to see that maybe the evangelical-conservative-Republican sector of American Christianity don’t have the final word on what it means to be a Christ-follower, or how that person should look and act and what they should believe.
This book blew the tidy little box that I held Jesus in right open, and allowed the Spirit to really begin working and moving in my life.
2. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller
This book brought me right back to college with it’s big wordy words and theological language. Yet it was also somehow simple and easy to understand. This book was my education on who God really is that I hadn’t received growing up in a Christian church and attending one of the top Christian colleges in the country.
3. Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action by Matthew Sleeth
At this time in my life, I had been listening to sermon podcasts from a church that I admired, Mars Hill, and they had a sermon series called Green Like God. I was intrigued, because at this point I was of the opinion that global warming was a myth made up by a liberal agenda. I didn’t think that being a Christian and Going Green had anything to do with each other. In fact, I probably believed that they were opposed to each other. All that nonsense that green and natural living is about tree-worship and “We worship the Creator not the creation.”
One of the sermons in the series was by Matthew Sleeth and as I listened to him speak my mind was opened to the possibility that maybe Christians were supposed to care about creation: and that green and natural living is not just the earth but the people who live on the earth.
I decided to read Dr. Sleeth’s book, Serve God, Save the Planet and it completely changed my life because it made me realize that green and natural living IS an extremely important value for Christ followers. For the first time, I began to think about how my choices affected not just the environment, but the people around the world who are most greatly affected by environmental change and destruction.
This is the book that really jump started our family’s journey toward green and natural living.
Then I read these next three books, and I almost need a separate post for each one to adequately describe the impact they made on my life. And this post is getting too long already!
I cannot even begin to put into words the way that these books completely blew away my worldview, totally shifting my paradigms of what it means to be a Christian and truly follow after Christ.
These books are serious, and dangerous. I believe they will rock your world – in a good way – but I also think many Christians in our culture are not really ready to read them.
I truly believe the order I read these books in was so important for me. The Spirit was already chipping away at my worldview, so my heart and mind were primed and ready to receive the messages and lessons God wanted to teach me through these books.
These books made such an impact on my life that I kinda believe they should be mandatory reading for Christians, but that’s just my humble opinion. Take it for what it’s worth.
So here they are, I really don’t know what else to say about them, so I’ll just list them and let you check them out for yourself. I hope and pray that you will, because I believe that we need to live in the way these books advocate if Christians in our country were really serious about having an impact on our culture and on our world.
4. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan
5. Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt
Maybe I will write a more in depth review of each of them soon – we’ll see how it goes!
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I’d love to hear from you – have you read any of these books? What kind of impact did they have on your life? What books have you read that have had the biggest impact on your life?______________________________________________
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This is the second time in the past week I’ve heard that Crazy Love is a must read. I guess I’m definitely going to need to order it. And I’d love for you to review the last three books – I love book reviews. 🙂
Oh, what a great list!!! So many of these have had a huge impact on my life, especially Irresistible Revolution. Have you ever read Jonathan Merritt’s Green Like God? I think you would like it.
A book that really changed my life is Madeline L’Engle’s Walking on Water. It’s on art and the Christian and faith and it is SO POWERFUL. Revolutionized my thinking about art, actually. I need to re-read it every so often to be reminded of her wisdom.
I have not read any of these, but they all sound great! A similar book that I really enjoyed is The God We Never Knew by Marcus Borg–it describes the God that my heart always suspected was real, who is so different from the God a lot of people believe in. I have come to know God better as an adult, but it was great to read this supportive argument.
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis is a great one, too, if a little dated.
Crazy Love was fabulous. Changed my thinking as well
Thank you for these recommendations – especially the one about going green. I am a Christian who teaches Environmental Science in a public high school. I have long believed that taking care of the Earth was a godly thing to do and never equated it with new age spiritualism or the like. I am glad to see there are other believers who feel the same way. All of these books look wonderful. I hope they have kindle versions!
I’ve read all of these books except #2 and #3. All changed my life. In fact, I got so passionate about this new way of living life that I began to scare my friends, family and myself for awhile. {grin} If you add ‘Interrupted’ by Jen Hatmaker and ‘Barefoot Church’ by Brandon Hatmaker to your reading list, you won’t be sorry. Shane Claiborne was a huge part of their story too. I’m always so excited when I find others who’ve had their perfect ‘Jesus box’ blown up like mine was! God is really good all the time.
Caryn – Thanks for those recommendations – Interrupted and Barefoot Church are definitely both on my reading list! I have Barefoot Church waiting for me on my Kindle, and after I read “7” by Jen Hatmaker, I knew I wanted to read Interrupted too!
~Emily
Yes! I forgot about “7”. That book is great too! Jen and Brandon are amazing. She is the one that changed my life. The first time I met her I was in awe. I had no idea that the things I felt in my heart were even legal! hahahaha She confirmed that I was weird in a good way. This brings me happiness.