My Top 10 Most Formative Books

Books that explain why I am the way that I am (mostly)

Photo by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash

My head has always been stuck in books. I can clearly remember late nights spent reading classics like The Count of Monte Cristo or Frankenstein by dim lamp light, sliding Hardy Boys or Magic Tree House books across the floor to my friends during silent reading time at school, and finishing long Ted Dekker thrillers that my parents had just bought earlier that day. Reading has always ranked highly on my list of favorite activities, catapulting me into worlds I would never have thought possible.

I have a goal to read 50 books this year (at my latest count, I finished 2024 with close to 40 books completed). And as I was compiling a list of hopefuls for 2025, I began thinking back on the books that have shaped me most over the course of my life. I settled on 10 (though I honestly could probably list 100) that have most influenced my thinking, shaped my worldview, or opened up new paradigms for me. These, to greater or lesser degrees, explain why I am the way that I am (or maybe rather why I think the way that I do).

Rather than look at my bookshelves to see which titles I would include on this list, I chose the first ones that came to mind without much prompting or mental probing. There is no particular order or ranking to this list, and the fact that a book makes it on this list is not a full endorsement of all content in the book or from the author (I hate that we have to make these kinds of qualifiers, but welcome to the 2020’s). I’ll give a short overview of what this book has done in my own life, and maybe a quote or synopsis if I find it helpful or informative. My hope is to give you a better idea of some of the voices that have shaped me and (maybe) give you a taste of ones that could shape you.

1. The Explicit Gospel (Matt Chandler)

I read this book during my freshman or sophomore year of college. It was my first foray into a deep, Scripture-heavy, systematic yet widely accessible treatment of the gospel. More than giving me information to reflect on, it taught me how to systematically engage with the Scriptures and then articulate what I’ve learned to others. I am deeply grateful for Chandler’s work on this book. (Bonus: my wife came to faith while studying this book in college - double blessed!)

Moralists see [their own] fall and believe that the Father is ashamed and thinks they’re foolish. So, more often than not, they stop trying to walk because they can’t see the Father rejoicing in and celebrating his child. Church of Jesus, let us please be men and women who understand the difference between moralism and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s be careful to preach the dos and don’ts of Scripture to the shadow of the cross’s “Done!” Resolve to know nothing but Jesus Christ crucified. We are not looking to conform people to a pattern of religion but pleading with the Holy Spirit to transform people’s lives. Let us move forward according to that upward call, holding firmly to the explicit gospel. (p. 221)

2. Let the Nations be Glad! (John Piper)

This was one of the first books I read in seminary at DTS. Having a worship background, I LOVE how Piper situated the call of missions within God’s vision of all nations coming to worship the King of glory. My own mindset of and approach to missions has been impacted as I consider my place in God’s mission, ushering in the worship of Christ for all nations. If you have any inclination toward missions, whether short or long-term, I highly recommend this book.

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. (p. 15)

3. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (John Mark Comer)

I read this book towards the onset of a long season of burnout, anxiety, and depression. In my previous church/work context, I operated under the assumption that to work was to hustle, running myself ragged. The logic ran that if my work was really for the Lord, then any and all exhaustion was a mark of my faithfulness to Him (even writing this hurts me in hindsight). Through this book, I learned that God actually designed life to be lived very differently than what we’re told in this cultural moment. A life lived at a constant 100 miles per hour is really only a half-life; anything that really matters becomes the blurry backdrop on the way to the destination that you can never quite reach, no matter how fast you go.

Nearly 5 years later, I still refer back to this book as paradigm-shifting for me in my own relationship to work and rest and how God in His wisdom designed it to be. I don’t rest perfectly, but my relationship to work is much healthier than it once was. While I wanted to pick a quote from this book (Comer is very quotable), my copy of this book is on loan. You should just read it instead :)

A quick honorable mention here for Jefferson Bethke’s book To Hell with the Hustle - same basic premise; both books were helpful, though I find Comer’s treatment of the subject to be more exhaustive.

4. The Deeply Formed Life (Rich Villodas)

This was the first of many many books I’ve read on spiritual formation and the concept of developing a rule of life. Villodas’ take is not the first, and by no means will it be the last, but I found it to resonate deeply within me. His five-fold model of spiritual wholeness in relation to God is a helpful framework for me:

1. Contemplative Rhythms for an Unhurried Life

2. Racial Reconciliation for a New Humanity

3. Interior Examination for a Life of Integrity

4. Sexual Wholeness for a Healthy Relationship with Sexuality

5. Missional Presence for a Life in the World

It’s exhaustive, flexible, and aimed towards our culture. If you’ve read others — Willard, Comer, Staton, etc. — you’ll find overlapping themes and ideas, but I appreciate Villodas’ perspective the most in this regard.

5. Justification (N.T. Wright)

I’m honestly still trying to wrap my brain around this one. What I have appreciated most about this read is Wright’s distinct perspective on the means and mode of justification we have in Christ Jesus. Wright grounds his argument all over the New Testament rather than just in Romans (from which our predominant views of justification arise).

I resonate with Wright’s sentiment (which he espouses elsewhere) of “making Christianity complicated again” — not in confusing the contents of the gospel but in really weighing the biblical evidence and discovering that not everything fits into our neat categories or even within our thought traditions. I don’t yet know if I agree with everything inside this book, but it has challenged me to think broadly and with the whole biblical story in mind.

(Note: please read books/authors that you may disagree with - this will make you a better thinker)

Part of me recoils from having to question this traditional reading of the text [referring to the doctrine of imputed righteousness in 2 Corinthians 5:21]. This is not just nervousness at spitting in the strong wind of a powerful and (I have to say) appealing tradition. Because I can see a great truth underneath the claim that is being made, the truth which anchors Christians in the love of God rather than anything in themselves, I am loath to say that I disagree with this reading of the text. But the double rule of good exegesis drives me on. First, we must pay attention to the text against all our traditions, however venerable their provenance and however pastorally helpful we find them. Second, if we do not do this, but rather (even unwittingly) allow our traditions to force us to read the text in a way which it does not in fact support, that means that there is something the text really does want to tell us which we are muzzling, denying, not allowing to come out. And in this case I think that is precisely what is going on. (pp. 158-159)

6. Perelandra (C.S. Lewis)

Contrary to what this list may imply, I much prefer fiction to non-fiction. I don’t know that I can fully express the impact this book has had on me. I feel similarly about all of Lewis’ fiction stories; he has a unique way of approaching spiritual realities from unexpected places, casting them in a light that makes you appreciate their beauty all over again.

The second in his Space Trilogy, this is my favorite of the three following the character Ransom as he travels to neighboring planets. It created a true longing in me to know in more expansive, exhaustive terms the intricacies of the Fall and subsequent grace, conflict and redemption, the material and the spiritual. Below I am putting my favorite quote, which is spoken by an angelic as he is referring to Ransom. It may not make much sense out of context, but it’s one I come back to again and again.

A clear voice like a chime of remote bells, a voice with no blood in it, spoke out of the air and sent a tingling through his frame…

“Look on him, beloved, and love him,” said the first. “He is indeed but breathing dust and a careless touch would unmake him. And in his best thoughts there are such things mingled as, if we thought them, our light would perish. Be he is in the body of Maleldil [Christ] and his sins are forgiven. His very name in his own tongue is Elwin, the friend of the eldila.” (p. 167)

7. Desiring the Kingdom (James K.A. Smith)

This is another seminary read, drawn from my Christian Life and Witness class. In this book I recognized how embodied practices and habits, more than information and espoused values, shape the content and direction of our lives. In a way, this book was a primer for me on seeing the value in grounded, embodied practices of the faith (all the practices which are commonly encouraged in current spiritual formation literature).

Smith tends more towards philosophy and technical language. I highly recommend it if you want a framework for understanding [a theory of] why we are the way we are as human beings.

While some of our habits (automaticities) are acquired by choosing to engage in certain practices (e.g., signing up for driver’s ed or registering for piano lessons), many are acquired without our knowing it. And this might happen especially when we are unaware of it. If we are inattentive to the formative role of practices, or if we treat some practices as thin when they are thick, then we will be inattentive to all the ways that such practices unwittingly and unintentionally become automated. We will fail to recognize that they are forming in us habits and desires, oriented to particular ends, that function to draw us toward those ends at an affective, unconscious level such that we become certain kinds of people without even being aware of it. (p. 85)

8. Beholding (Strahan Coleman)

This one didn’t initially make the list in my head, but so much of how I conceive contemplative prayer was born out of this book. Coleman stresses a sense of ‘beholding’ in prayer, an open disposition toward God to see Him in all His glory, love, and compassion and allowing Him to see you in kind, receiving His love. It’s on the touchy-feely side of spirituality, but he powerfully reframes the very act of prayer as an act both mysterious and beautiful, ordinary and supernatural.

God is an endless source of wisdom, truth, and fascination. So often we don’t realise just how true that is because we don’t stick around long enough. I think we’d all be shocked to hear what God longs to talk with us about if we just took a little more time to ask and wait. In that sense, communion with God can be very ordinary because it involves processing all parts of life with Him as we go. We can behold God whilst we’re washing the dishes, playing with our children, or walking in nature. Beholding prayer is a disposition of openness to God in every moment because, whether we see or feel Him there or not, He is there like oxygen. And we know that wherever He is, He’s there in His unchanging nature of compassion, kindness, withness, and joy. (p. 47)

9. Confessions of an Economic Hitman (John Perkins)

This is a far left turn in terms of topic/genre as this read is not spiritual in the slightest. This book, which was recommended to me by my high school history teacher when I was 17 (shoutout Mr. Giddens), gave me my first taste of an America not dripping with the rhetoric of exceptionalism. It is the memoir of a U.S.-based ‘economic hitman’ deployed around the world to broker trade deals with other countries that were incredibly lucrative for Americans and less-than-ideal (let the reader understand) for other nations. I don’t own a copy of this anymore, though I saw on Amazon that he’s expanded on the stories, and I’d be interested to read it again with more insight.

Perkins presented something dark, subversive, and deeply manipulative that began tearing away at my sense of American moral superiority on the world stage. While I am thankful for my country and for the freedoms I enjoy here, this book caused me to question much and was probably the first in a long line of dominoes that led me to reject any form of Christian nationalism (for which I am profoundly thankful).

10. What Did the Cross Achieve? (J.I. Packer)

This is my most recent read from this list (within the last year), and this 1973 lecture from Dr. Packer has profoundly impacted my mindset in theological pursuits. He gives clear and (relatively) concise expression to much of what I have been wrestling with in terms of approach and systematization.

Better than the bulk argument of the lecture—which is incredibly dense—is the introduction, in which he propounds a beautiful vision for humility I have scarcely seen in theological spaces. It gave me the words to articulate an idea I had been searching for for quite some time, and I am deeply thankful for this.

Will any model do to give knowledge of the living God? Historically, Christians have not thought so. Their characteristic theological method, whether practiced clumsily or skillfully, consistently or inconsistently, has been to take biblical models as their God-given starting point, to base their belief system on what biblical writers use these models to say, and to let these models operate as controls, both suggesting and delimiting what further, secondary models may be developed in order to explicate these that are primary. As models in physics are hypotheses formed under the suggestive control of empirical evidence to correlate and predict phenomena, so Christian theological models are explanatory constructs formed to help us know, understand, and deal with God, the ultimate reality. (pp. 24-25)

---

What are some books that have profoundly impacted you or give reason to why you are the way that you are? Let me know in the comments!