Brian Zahnd

The Six Most Influential Books I’ve Read Within the Last Decade

Books, Kingdom of God, Spiritual Growth

I’m a book geek. I won’t hide it, nor will I apologize for it.

Over the last few years, reading has played an indispensable role in helping me discover a richer, deeper, more satisfying life with Christ.

But it’s not just reading, per se. It’s learning what to read and who to read. Like digging for gold, you’ve got to know where to look.

So I figured I’d share some of the books and authors that have impacted me the most. There are many, many really good books that I could recommend, to be sure. But for me, these are in a separate category.

So here goes, in no particular order…

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Preface to My New Book: “Healthy Prayer”

Books, Prayer, Solitude, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Growth

Writing a book was never really a goal of mine. Vocationally, I have always self-identified as preacher first, content to read what other people have written.

But three years into pastoring my church in South Louisiana, I experienced a dynamic shift in my prayer life. I discovered an approach to prayer that was a bit foreign to me, but once I experienced it I couldn’t get enough. This shift in prayer set me on a course that began to slowly transform my marriage, my parenting, and my approach to life and ministry.

Not long after, I decided to begin teaching the people in my church what I was discovering about prayer. Every couple months or so, I began hosting “prayer workshops” in my living room. I would take 8-12 people at a time and teach about prayer for three hours on a Saturday morning.

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What I’ve Been Reading in 2018 (first batch)

Books

My goal going into this year was to read 52 books. So far, I’m halfway to that goal – a bit ahead of pace. But I already know I won’t be doing this again next year. Every so often I find myself pushing forward too quickly rather than slowly absorbing what I’m learning.

Anyhow, I thought I’d go ahead and share a brief snippet about the 26 books I have read so far in 2018. For space reasons, I will only include the first thirteen of them in this post, and then wrap it up in a couple weeks. As you’ll see, I tend to read a lot of theological books, however, there is a little variety sprinkled in.

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