Last week in response to their query, I told my wife and daughters that a high-quality home theater with blue-ray DVD system would make a nice Christmas gift from them to me. Today I found out the price of those systems. A war immediately broke out between two conflicting inner voices, one of which said "You're an audiophile, you deserve it, and it will make the perfect compliment to your HD widescreen TV." The other inner voice said: "In these economic times, I think not!" I really like that system, but reason won the battle over fantasy and so I have instead asked for a more valuable but less pricey, long awaited book on Dr. Gardner C. Taylor, the greatest preacher of our time.
For ministry, nothing is better than a library which contains a variety of books which feed your spirit, expand your thinking, and provides practical, theological, and cultural perspectives from others which can be gleaned to benefit your own ministry.
A small sample of books that would make an exceptional gift, be helpful to ministry in the 21st century, and deserving of space in a personal library would include any of the following:
1. Preaching:
Teresa L. Fry Brown. Weary Throats and New Songs: Black Women Proclaiming God's Word.
2. Pastoral Care:
Edward P. Wimberly. African American Pastoral Care, Revised Edition.
Lee H. Butler, Jr. Liberating Our Dignity, Saving Our Souls.
3. Pastoral Leadership:
Jeffery L. Tribble, Sr. Transformative Pastoral Leadership in the Black Church.
James Henry Harris. The Courage To Lead: Leadership in the African American Urban Church.
4. Spiritual Food:
Charisse Carney-Nunes. Songs of a Sistermom: Motherhood Poems.
5. Ministry Profiles and Possibilities:
Ronald J. Sider and Heidi Unruh,ed. Hope for Children In Poverty.
6. Community Wisdom:
Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, ed. The Sky is Crying.
Cornel West. Hope on a Tightrope.
Robert M. Franklin. Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities.
7. History
Thomas J. Sugrue. Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North.
Taylor Branch. At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68.
8. Worship:
Valerie Bridgeman Davis and Safiyah Fosua. The Africana Worship Book.
But strive for the greatest gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
1 Corinthians 12:31
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