Top 12 Books of 2025

Each year I write a short post highlighting the top twelve books I read that year, plus a few honorable mentions. I do this because I want to honor those worthy of honor, and also in the hopes that some of you might see a title or two that interests you. (Those who know me well know I love to get others reading excellent books!) So without further ado, here are the twelve best books I read in 2025, in no particular order.

1. Lectures for My Students, Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon is at his practical, wise, engaging best in this lengthy classic. Originally a series of lectures he gave for the students in his pastoral ministry school, there’s timeless wisdom for just about every aspect of life in ministry.
2. Spiritual Formation as If the Church Mattered, James Wilhoit. I love any book about discipleship that places it within the local church context. Thoughtful and meticulously researched, I found this enormously helpful to my thinking and discipleship practices.
3. Sounding the Seasons, Malcolm Guite. A collection of “holy” sonnets tracking with the church calendar. Guite movingly combines masterly handling of the English language with profound spiritual depth and insight.
4. Christian Philosophy as a Way of Life, Daniel Inman. This book starts a little dry, but if you push through the seemingly boring parts (which are really laying the necessary foundation), you’ll reap a tremendous reward. Inman shows how important it is that Christians think deeply (philosophically, really!) in order to make sense of life.
5. The Opt-Out Family, Erin Loechner. If you have any skepticism about current technological (and thus relational/spiritual) trends, this is the book for you. Loechner offers a rousing challenge to offer our children more than what Silicon Valley falsely promises them. Skip the smart phones and go outside!
6. I Cheerfully Refuse, Leif Enger. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so oddly encouraged by a dystopian novel. Beautiful prose and compelling narrative.
7. Whose Body? Dorothy Sayers. I enjoy great British detective novels, and this one is a gem. Lord Peter Wimsey is one of the great characters in fiction.
8. Scrolling Ourselves to Death, ed. Brett McCracken. Much like The Opt-Out Family, this book will make you think much more critically about how you make use of technology, including for ministry leaders in the church.
9. Theo of Golden, Allen Levi. I’m not the only one who has this entry on my list, I’m sure. Levi is a first-time author, which shows at points, but he weaves an absolutely entrancing story of redemption and love.
10. A Secular Age, Charles Taylor. It took me a while to take up Taylor, but I’m so glad I did. More wordy than he needs to be (which philosopher isn’t?), but with such depth of understanding. Absolute must-read to understand our current spiritual context. (I would highly recommend reading Jamie Smith’s How (Not) to Be Secular alongside it, as a sort-of Cliff’s Notes guide to the book.)
11. The Burnout Society, Byung-Chul Han. This is the philosopher that isn’t too wordy! Short and dense, Han also helps us understand how technology and secularism have changed us — and not for the better.
12. Supercommunicators, Charles Duhigg. I found Duhigg’s take on what makes communication effective to be eye-opening, especially when it comes to the power of asking deep questions. Duhigg brings together a number of important and fascinating research projects, offering a sort-of Reader’s Digest version of a huge field.

Honorable Mentions: The Training of the Twelve, A.B. Bruce. Daily Doctrine, Kevin DeYoung. Deep Discipleship, J.T. English. All Loves Excelling, John Bunyan. A Room Called Remember, Frederick Buechner. Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt. The Elder-Led Church, Murray Capill. Letters to a Young Pastor, Eugene Peterson. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr. Planting by Pastoring, Nathan Knight. Biblical Theology, Geerhardus Vos. Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, Mark Vroegop. Honest Evangelism, Rico Tice.