Top 10 Books for 2010

I read a ridiculous number of books last year. This year I plan to read fewer, but better books.

Here is my top 10 list for 2010 in no particular order:

1. Whole Life Transformation by Keith Meyer. One of the most practical books on spiritual formation I have ever read.
2. The Good and Beautiful Life by James Bryan Smith. I preached a series based on this book. It paints a wonderful vision of what the Christian life can be.
3. Plato's Republic. Don't laugh! I learned so much about the thinking that shaped the culture Jesus stepped into 2,000 years ago from this book.
4. Transforming the City by Eric Swanson. Eric is a friend. He preached for me yesterday. He has given me so many categories for seeing cities and churches from a missional viewpoint. He shows how synergistic evangelism and service can and should be.
5. Prodigal God by Tim Keller. Keller is the best apologist, for the masses, alive today.
6. Same Kind of Different as Me by Denver Moore and Ryan Hall. Cried like a baby reading this one. Helped me see the homeless in a new way. Inspired me more than the last five books I have read on justice and mercy.
7. Sticky Church by Larry Osborne. A must read if you pastor a church and care about unity in the midst of change.
8. One Thing You Must Know by Marcus Buckingham. Defines leadership and management with great precision. My favorite leadership book of 2010.
9. Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs. I read three books on marriage last year. This was the most simple and helpful. If couples got this right they would do well.
10. Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. Read this one again for the third time. Dallas is the preeminent thought leader in spiritual formation.

Honorable mention: Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki and Beyond Gender Roles by Gilbert Bilezkian.