Top Book Recommendations
- The Prayer Mentor Series (3 books)\ Clyde Hodson
- Fielder Church’s own Clyde Hodson has challenged missionaries and churches around the world to consider how to pray fervently and biblically. These booklets have instruction as well as examples of prayer that will help you develop a more fervent prayer life.
- The Insanity of God and The Insanity of Obedience \ Nik Ripken
- It is hard to pick one over the other, but I was so burdened when I first read Insanity of Obedience because it challenges you to think about what should the church look like if God was really serious when He said that His followers would be sheep among wolves.
- Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home\ Richard Foster
- This book was so helpful to help categorize prayer and the different ways that prayer is communicated in scripture. It felt much more like a reference book rather than a quick read, but you will want to have it on your bookshelf to help you navigate your communion with God.
- The Sacred Search (or Sacred Marriage) \ Gary Thomas
- I recommend this book to all my single friends. It helped Glyn and I think differently about dating and marriage enough so that we saw God was drawing us to one another.
- Tradecraft: For the Church on Mission \ Caleb Crider, Larry E. McCrary, Rodney Calfee, Wade Stephens
- Whether you are looking to be on mission where you live or wondering what it looks like to be a planter either overseas or in America, these authors have created practical ways to implement strategies to reach the people God has placed around you.
- When Helping Hurts \ Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
- How do we serve those with a lot of needs? Is it okay to give money to someone you don’t know will use it in the way you intended? These questions and more are answered as you learn from different examples of benevolence ministries and how we can leave a longer lasting impact.
- Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes
- So often we are reading ourselves into the biblical narrative, when the reality is that the original authors were writing in the context of a different culture. When we take off our cultural lens and begin to understand the original context, scripture can come to life in ways that you haven’t experienced it before.
- Adopt without Debt \ Julie Gumm
- Glyn and I were nervous about adoption because of the major costs associated with adoption. We bought this book thinking it would help us learn creative ways to fundraise, which it did, but it also helped us to understand the different realms of foster care and adoption and guided us toward knowing the importance of ethical agencies.
- The God Ask\ Steve Shadrach
- Whether you are fundraising for a missionary call, adoption, church plant, or unique calling, it is a challenge to shift your thinking from “how do I get all the money I need” to “Who has God already asked to partner with me?” This book helps develop a theology for generosity as well as shepherd you toward confidence in asking others to join in the work that God has asked you to step into.
- Mere Christianity \ C.S. Lewis
Contact Richard with book questions and recommendations.