(REVIEW) It’s been another tough year for Christian ministry. The residual effects of the COVID-19 crisis continue to burden houses of worship. In many places, church attendance still struggles to return to prepandemic levels, and pastors are feeling the pinch.

Then there is the constant barrage of negative press, widespread coverage of public pastor scandals, spiritual abuse in the church and political divisions fracturing congregations. This social mixture has eroded public trust in Christian leaders and institutions. 

As these pressures mount, studies continue to show that pastors are feeling more alienated and despondent. Last year, Barna published a survey asking pastors why they quit the ministry. More than half registered the immense stress of the job as the primary reason for their departure. The other two top reasons for leaving were loneliness and political divisions within their flock. The collective weight of social, cultural, ecclesial and personal pressures indicate that ministry is getting harder. 

READ: 3 Books Take On Need For Faith And Community

But in 2023 there were several books released that can help ministers think through these challenges. While the year was filled with many outstanding publications, I found these five particularly helpful for navigating this cultural moment, and all of these are worth the pastor’s time:

1. ‘The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?’

So, I begin with the bad news. Jim Davis, Michael Graham and Ryan P. Burge are cultural physicians diagnosing the problems that plague our society. Prepare yourself: This is a sobering read. They don’t mince words.

“We are currently in the middle of the largest and fastest religious shift in the history of our country,” the tell us.

They estimate that tens of millions of people have left the church in the last few decades, and now approximately 86 Christian churches are closing every week.

A serious dark night of the soul awaits the church in the coming years. But even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord is with us. Like the prophets of the Old Testament, these authors offer difficult words but conclude with hope. Many of the dechurched believe it is important to attend religious services and even express willingness to return; they just are not motivated to go.

The authors remind us that living in exile will require some difficult decisions in the coming years, but with a clear vision of the situation that lay ahead, we can slowly begin to craft a way forward. 

2. ‘Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation’

If you want an illustration of a pastor ministering with grace and fortitude on the front lines of the struggle between Christ and culture, then this is the biography for you. Collin Hansen does the Christian world a great service by walking us through Timothy Keller’s spiritual and intellectual journey. 

As I summarized in my review of the book here, the book is organized around Keller’s “influences.” In each chapter, readers encounter the people and ideas that shape his ministry and character, including “the woman who taught him how to read the Bible, to the professor who taught him to preach Jesus from every text, to the sociologist who taught him to see beneath society’s surface.”

Hansen’s biography provides a snapshot of a faithful minister of the gospel and the path that guided him throughout his life.

Readers will witness “God’s mysterious providence” in the collection of influences that guide him through his formative years in the faith to his emerging ministry at Redeemer in New York City. No matter where you are in Christian ministry, this book will feed your soul and mentor you in a wise, engaging pastoral ministry.  

3. ‘Evangelism: For the Care of Souls’ 

This was a big year for the care of souls. Lexham Press published several volumes in their new “For the Care of Souls” series. These works all build upon Harold L. Senkbeil’s award winning 2019 book “The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart,” which is a must-read for any minister. These volumes get back to the basics of pastoral care, reminding ministers for the timeless virtues of shepherding a flock. 

To get started in this series, I recommend “Evangelism: For the Care of Souls,” which recasts how Christians engage this world in these turbulent times. Just as Paul eagerly engaged with pagan audiences the book of Acts, Sean McGever challenges readers to model this kind of thoughtful appealing evangelism.

The habit of announcing — and reannouncing — the good news of Jesus is central to the pastor’s vocation. The life of any minister should be a living active testimony of the love of God and the slow steady evangelization (and reevangelization) of a generation that is so often walking away from the faith.

Besides “Evangelism: For the Care of Souls,” several other volumes in this same series were published in 2023: Phillip Magness, “Church Music: For the Care of Souls”; Tyler C. Arnold, “Pastoral Visitation: For the Care of Souls”; and Harold Ristau, “Spiritual Warfare: For the Care of Souls.” These books take pastors back to the nuts and bolts of ministry, the essential features of patient, loving shepherding, which is desperately needed in our world.

4. ‘Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age’

One of the most pressing issues of our day is technology. We are living amid technological revolution, and things are moving fast. In “Digital Liturgies,” Samuel James does some of the heavy lifting for us. He reminds us that technology, and especially the internet, is no mere “tool.” It is not value neutral.

The internet creates “an epistemological environment — a spiritual and intellectual habitat — that creates in its members particular ways of thinking, feeling, and believing.” Before our very eyes, technology is forming us in an online habitat. We are created in the image of God, James reminds us, but our lives are “increasingly mediated by screens, algorithms, and pixels.” We are leaning the live the patterns and rituals of a digital age.

He does not condemn technology but gets underneath it, looking into the internal hard drives of our lives that it is forming. People are swallowing every new technological innovation at a rapid pace, and pastors need to be on the forefront of this change. Pastors who want to faithfully shepherd their people must be on the forefront of this technological revolution, vigilant of the ways that it is impacting people’s spiritual lives. For any minister looking for wisdom in the digital age, this book is a great start.

5. ‘How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told’

I want to end with what might be an unusual recommendation, but hang with me. It is hard to put into words what this book accomplishes. It is a raw, unfiltered look into a marriage that dies a wretched death but, through the work of God, is raised to new life. 

Key is a master at his craft. His earlier work, “The World’s Largest Man,” was the 2016 winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. The book is funny, captivating and emotionally stirring. If readers do not throw the book in outrage at the narrative or weep inconsolably at the conclusion, they have no soul. 

But I recommendation this book with the caveat it is not an easy read. The book is a verbal thrashing, a tangled web of Scripture, humor and depravity.

Key’s life and marriage are laid out like a body at a wake, for everyone to stop by and give their condolences. Readers will be brought to their knees in compassion, like Key was on the night he discovered his marriage was over. Even after things are lashed together with shoestring, the trials of life continue. Their paths that twist and turn eventually leading, in dramatic fashion (I won’t spoil it!) to Christ, the church and reconciliation.

Pastors need to read this book. In our world there is so much brokenness, but Key’s story is the reminder that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Ministers should also pay attention to the way other Christians responded or rallied around their family. But pastors know all too well that not every story turns out like this — churches are filled with broken people. 

This story reminds us that there is hope. In a world where Christianity is waning, these kinds of illustrations are a palliative. The small glimpses of God’s work in people lives. We need to hear more stories like it, that remind us of the sacredness of marriage and the struggle to remain committed to the covenants we make. 

Honorable mention

It’s hard to just choose five, so here are a few other good books, honorable mentions if you will, from 2023 connected with topics related to the ones mentioned above:

• Andrew Wilson, “Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West”

• Peter J Leithart, “The Kingdom and the Power”

• Joshua D. Chatraw and Mark D. Allen, “The Augustine Way: Retrieving a Vision for the Church's Apologetic Witness”

• Jason Thacker, “The Digital Public Square: Christian Ethics in a Technological Society”

• J.T. English and Jen Wilkin, “You Are a Theologian: An Invitation to Know and Love God Well”

There is no doubt that 2023 was a tough year, but a community of writers and faithful Christians are learning to crawl forward through the cultural haze.

For those who are looking for help as we all journey together into the new year, these books are a great place to start. 

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Stephen O. Presley is senior fellow for religion and public life at the Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy. He’s also an associate professor of church history at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He completed his undergraduate work at Baylor University and earned a master’s degree in Historical Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He also received a doctorate from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he carried out his research in patristics. Presley is the author of numerous books, articles and essays, including a forthcoming book on cultural engagement in early Christianity (Eerdmans).