Our church has a recommended book list for both men and women during this year. The list aligns with our sermon series and course offerings to help our people go deeper in discipleship.
We have seen a surprising level of commitment for the inaugural year of our cohorts. The Men’s Cohort and the Women’s Cohort have different books but they are aligned with one another. The process is great for any individual, but we also want the ability for married couples to share with one another what they are learning on the same theme. We are allotting two months for every book.
Our registrations have closed to get the books through the church, but if you are looking for some solid resources, I recommend these wholeheartedly to you. Not all of these books are new, but they are pivotal volumes that help us follow Jesus closer.
Men’s Cohort
- Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life – Donald Whitney
- We aren’t meant to wait for holiness―we’re meant to pursue it. God commands Christians to actively “be holy,” but what does that look like in daily life? Rather than overwhelming legalism or loose boundaries, Don Whitney encourages us to find a practical middle ground through biblical habits.
- Finishing Strong – Steve Farrar
- Bestselling author Steve Farrar has good news for the average man: it doesn’t matter if you’ve had a great start in the Christian life, or a rough one. It doesn’t matter if you’ve stumbled time and again, or even fallen flat on your face. What matters most in this all-important race of life is how you finish. According to Farrar, the man who hangs in there for the long haul with his wife, his kids, and his Lord is an exception these days.
- 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You – Tony Reinke
- Drawing from the insights of numerous thinkers, published studies, and his own research, writer Tony Reinke identifies twelve potent ways our smartphones have changed us—for good and bad. Reinke calls us to cultivate wise thinking and healthy habits in the digital age, encouraging us to maximize the many blessings, to avoid the various pitfalls, and to wisely wield the most powerful gadget of human connection ever unleashed.
- Pure in Heart – Garrett Kell
- Many women and men trapped in sexual sin believe willpower is the key to overcoming temptation, but your shaky self-discipline doesn’t have to be the source of your strength. Sharing from his personal struggles, J. Garrett Kell explains that life-long transformation rests in the supernatural power of the Savior and the support of a local church. He offers profound insights into Jesus’s teachings on purity and provides you with long-term strategies for your own pathway to freedom.
- Counter Culture – David Platt
- Welcome to the front lines. Everywhere we turn, battle lines are being drawn―traditional marriage vs. gay marriage, pro-life vs. pro-choice, personal freedom vs. governmental protection. Seemingly overnight, culture has shifted to the point where right and wrong are no longer measured by universal truth but by popular opinion. And as difficult conversations about homosexuality, abortion, and religious liberty continue to inject themselves into our workplaces, our churches, our schools, and our homes, Christians everywhere are asking the same question: How are we supposed to respond to all this?
- Made for Friendship – Drew Hunter
- Friendship is one of the deepest pleasures of life. But in our busy, fast-paced, mobile world, we’ve lost this rich view of friendship and instead settled for shallow acquaintances based on little more than similar tastes or shared interests. Helping us recapture a vision of true friendship, pastor Drew Hunter explores God’s design for friendship and what it really looks like in practice―giving us practical advice to cultivate the kinds of true friendships that lead to true and life-giving joy.
Women’s Cohort
- Women of the Word – Jen Wilkin
- We all know it’s important to study God’s word. But sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. What’s more, a lack of time, emotionally driven approaches, and past frustrations can erode our resolve to keep growing in our knowledge of Scripture. How can we, as Christian women, keep our focus and sustain our passion when reading the Bible? Women of the Word has helped countless women with a clear and concise plan they can use every time they open their Bible. This book will equip you to engage God’s word in a way that trains your mind and transforms your heart.
- (A)Typical Woman – Abigail Dodds
- In a culture that can belittle womanhood on the one hand―making it irrelevant―and glorify it on the other―making it everything―it’s hard to know what it really means to be a woman. But when we understand womanhood through the lens of Scripture, we see that we need a bigger category for what God has called “woman.” This book breathes fresh air into our womanhood, reminding us what life in Christ―as a woman―looks like. When we see that we are women in all we do, we can be at peace with how God has created us, recognizing womanhood as an essential part of Christ’s mission and work.
- Social Sanity in an Insta World – Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra
- Social media can be both a delight and a disaster for women who want to love God and love neighbor. The industry has grown so fast that it’s been hard to figure out how to handle it wisely: in less than 20 years, more than 75 percent of American women have signed up for an account. The latest surveys show Americans spend more than two hours a day scrolling, posting, and liking. How can we navigate this area of our lives with grace and discernment?
- True Feelings – Carolyn Mahaney
- ​​Emotions can be confusing. One moment we’re happy, content, and hopeful, and the next we’re anxious, hurt, and overwhelmed. But we don’t have to live at the mercy of our emotions. In True Feelings, a mother-daughter team clears away common misconceptions and mixed messages about our feelings to offer us a biblical perspective on emotions―helping us understand how they work, why we feel what we feel, and how to develop good emotional habits. We will see that we don’t have to ignore, excuse, or follow our feelings, but can instead learn to honor God with our emotions as an integral part of who he made us to be.
- Cultural Counterfeits – Jen Oshman
- In today’s culture, women and girls are influenced by idols that promise purpose and meaning for their lives―outward beauty and ability, sex, abortion, and gender fluidity. Christian women aren’t exempt from these temptations either, and can even elevate good things like marriage and motherhood to the status of idolatry. Women may sense that these idols are hollow and leave them feeling unsettled, but where should they turn instead?
- Friend-ish – Kelly Needham
- In Friend-ish, Kelly Needham reminds us that we were called to more than halfhearted friendships and lukewarm connections. We need something more stable, secure, and sacred. We were designed for real friendship–but the difficult truth is that too many of us are settling for less. Kelly deconstructs what Scripture says about the gift of friendship and takes a closer look at the distorted view that most of us have instead. As she shares the lessons she’s learned from experience, Kelly paints her own glorious vision of what Christian friendship could look like.
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
