Books
Below is a small selection of books that we think you might find helpful to use in your community and/or to help you grow as a leader (we’ve mark resources suitable to use a community with ‘BC’). As this list grows we’ll begin to categorise these books to help you find what you are looking for. If you would like to borrow any of these books please do speak to either Anne or Tim.
Mission-Shaped Grace by John McGinley (BC)
John gave excellent input at our October 2020 Learning Community. He heads up Church Planting for New Wine. Anne recommends this book to give the background to John’s teaching and the Mission Shaped Living Course – she found it both inspiring and challenging. John brings a wealth of practical experience of how to share faith personally and to equip others to do the same.
Reimagine Church by Nic Harding
Nic is a regular speaker at our Learning Communities and on Sundays. He leads Kairos Connexion which works with churches all over the country to raise and release missionary disciples in gospel communities. He also leads a missional community where he lives so brings huge insight into the practice of living this out day to day. This is a great book to understand and apply all this teaching – Anne loves this book!
Leading Missional Communities by Mike Breen
Available to purchase from the office, email office@stbs.org.uk
This is a ‘101’ of what it means to lead a missional community looking at how we can start new communities, what we do in communities and how we form vision. This is a really helpful read for all new Barnabas Community leaders.
Jesus Shaped Living by Bob Rognlien (BC)
Jesus shaped Living is a short introduction to what it means to be a disciples of Jesus, living out our missional calling everyday. It explores the questions: Who am I?, Why am I here? Who am I following? and Who is my Family? This would be something that would be easy to read and study as a community and particularly a great resource for new christians.
Empowering Missional Disciples by Bob Rognlien
Buy Empowering Missional Disciples here
Empowering Missional Disciples is an in-depth introduction to the Jesus-shaped way of life. This books sits alongside ‘Jesus Shaped Life’ as a tool for leaders and those discipling others. This is a great resource for helping us as missional disciples raise others to become missional disciples.
Family On Mission by Mike and Sally Breen (BC)
Family on mission looks at how we can be a covenant community and play our part in the Kingdom of God’s mission. This has been foundational for Tim and Emily as they started their family - studying this with a small group of others feeling the call to be a ‘family on mission’. Mike and Sally offer some really simple and practical advice on how you can be a family of missional disciples as part of everyday life.
Out of the Salt Shaker and into the World by Rebecca Pippert
Buy Out of the Salt Shaker and into the World here
Evangelism isn't something you do, it's a world-changing way of life. Rebecca Manley Pippert shows how we as Christians, who are called to be the salt of the earth, can get out of the saltshaker and into life itself. People crowd the pages, with language and lifestyles to match. She confronts them with a Jesus as contemporary as themselves, a Christ they can see, who cares. Reading her book we laugh at her mistakes, identify with her failures, and find ourselves eager to emulate her spiritual progress.