This is my list of 10 good discipleship books which I’ve read in the past year that I commend to others. Having become Bishop of Bolton during 2023, my role and schedule has changed somewhat. I’m blogging less and writing in other places, but I want to continue writing this annual blog, as well as my other list of ten leadership books, as I know from feedback that many find them both helpful. So here we go: 10 Good Books for Disciples in 2024.

10. Jill Duff’s Lighting the Beacons

In this excellent book by the Bishop of Lancaster, Jill shares her heart for the renewal of God’s people and his church. Rooted in her love of the North and of Northern people, the book is full of insight, teaching, stories and anecdotes to inspire and encourage followers of Jesus to lift their eyes and see the fire of the Spirit that many are praying the Lord will bring in our day. 

9. John Stott & Chris Wright’s The Grace of Giving

I read this book as background reading for my book The Art of Giving which comes out in 2024. Although a few years old now, it is short and helpful and in John Stott’s practical exegetical style it provides good encouragement to become generous disciples of Christ. 

8. Rosario Butterfield’s The Gospel Comes with a Housekeep

Both Sam (my wife) and I read this book about this time last year, and we were both challenged about hospitality and opening our home more. In this book Butterfield tells her remarkable story, not only of coming to faith from an atheist background, but how she began to use her home as a centre of kindness and mission in her community. You may not agree with all her conclusions, but if you read this book you will certainly be challenged to become a disciple of radical generosity, using your home as a key resource for practical mission and service.

7. Alister McGrath’s Mere Discipleship

If you want to be confident talking about faith with friends, family and others, then this is the book for you. McGrath, who’s an expert in apologetics, has provided a rich resource to help ordinary disciples talk with those who have thoughtful questions about following Jesus. He doesn’t give all the answers but provides tools to help us engage and talk, rather than stay quiet and leave it to someone else. This is a fantastic book that I found so helpful.

6. Emma Ineson’s Failure

Bishop Emma, who followed me a Curate in Dore, Sheffield and is now Bishop of Kensington, wrote a book a few years ago called Ambition. This is a companion volume: on Failure. It’s so well written and helpfully researched and is a wise and empowering read, reminding us that failure is intrinsic to growth, and that what’s important is to keep learning and growing, allowing failure to shape us to be more effective followers of Christ. The cross of Jesus after all was seen by many as the ultimate failure, but look how God used it!

5. Tim Keller’s Hope in Times of Fear

I read this book in Lent as I prepared for Easter and it was just what I needed. In the book, which is all about the resurrection of Jesus, Keller writes having just received a difficult cancer diagnosis and he explains how that news has shaped his perception of Christ’s resurrection. Since I read it, Keller has now died, and he has left for us one of his most profound, powerful and visionary books, which I highly commend.

4. Martin Luther King’s A Gift of Love

Although I’ve read some of King’s speeches in the past, I had never read any of his written works. I read this alongside listening in the car to Jonathan Eig’s masterful recent biography of King, which shows the civil rights reformer to be an inspiring but complex and flawed character. King’s speeches in A Gift of Love are carefully crafted, historical rooted and prophetically challenging, even today. 

3. Alan Hirsch’s Meta-noia

I’ve read quite a lot of Hirsch’s books over the years, and would normally reference them in my Leadership list, but this one, while still written in Hirsch’s particular style, is more accessible than most, and is a powerful and practical book on the somewhat lost art of repentance. Hirsch shows how repentance is central to the life of the disciple, the church and indeed all good organisations, reminding us just how good and important it is, urging us to become again God’s repentant people.

2. Mark Batterson’s The Circle Maker

I read this book for a third time earlier this year in preparation for becoming a bishop. I wanted to return to it as I still think it is Batterson’s best book, and I also wanted to be inspired to keep prayer central and to learn again what it is to circle everything in prayer. Beautifully written and full of encouraging stories, I loved it like the first time.

1. The Bible

This has been my favourite discipleship book of 2023. I really mean that. Every day as I come to pick it up and read, I appreciate fresh bread from God’s word. Christ is so kind in feeding his people in this way, and he promises to nourish all who, as St Augustine learned, are willing to ‘take and read’ from God’s most holy word.

So there we have it. I hope in this Christmas and New Year season you can use a book-token or gift-card to purchase one or more of these books, for they will help you grow as a missionary disciple of Christ. Good reading does that, which is why John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, was right when he said ‘It cannot be that the people should grow in grace unless they grow themselves in reading. A reading people will always be a knowing people.’ So read wisely and read on. (And if you’re interested my leadership book-list for 2024 too, click here to find out more).