If you’re anything like me, you spend the early weeks of January listing out the books you hope to read in the new year. When I’m making my list, I look at the books on my shelf I haven’t read and at books that are soon-to-be released. As ministry leaders, we also pick out books related to subjects we’ll be teaching soon. 

If you’re preaching a series on Genesis, you’ll want to add a solid introduction to the Pentateuch and a few commentaries to your reading stack. But don’t stop there. To help you reflect on and illustrate the truths you discover in the text, you might work through Andrew Peterson’s tree-themed memoir, or read a novel like Steinbeck’s East of Eden. 

Reading broadly is a wise habit that can bear fruit in ways we don’t expect. It fires our imaginations and helps us see truth from new angles. That’s what Peter Gurry discovered as he prepared to teach a Sunday school class on a theology of gender: “What I found, to my surprise, was the most helpful books I read were not the ones written directly to address the gender debates.” Instead, Gurry found that books that come at the gender questions from wider lenses like natural law, biology, and history, offered new insight when he returned to the key biblical texts.

Pick a variety of books for your reading list this new year. And if a theology of gender is one of the topics you plan to read about, let Gurry’s helpful list be your guide.

Seeking to study with wisdom,