Summer Reading and Spiritual Growth
- John Richardson
- Jun 16
- 3 min read
Summer is finally here! The pollen attack of 2025 has slowed, and the top is off the Jeep!
What will you do during your summer? With many changing schedules among the summer months, more time outside, and long-lasting daylight, how will your summer shape your spiritual growth?
Summer provides a unique chance for those with children in the home to spend more time together. For those without children, summer provides opportunity to take some much-needed vacation. And for some, summer is no different than winter—beyond the color palette.
These few months provide a chance for me to personally reset, create some new rhythms, and reflect on the goodness of God in new ways (like a parkway ride in a Jeep with hair flying everywhere). At the beginning of June, I also select a summer reading list—books that I plan to stay up with late into the evening or early in the morning. Books that will be carried on summer vacations and dental appointments.
You might ask, “What is on your list?” I’m going to provide a short list of books that I’m attacking this summer as a chance to grow in the Lord and expand my knowledge of Him.
This book is a biographical account of Capitol Hill Baptist Church’s past 150 years of ministry that impacted both the city and the world. I am excited to read it and see the impact of God through a local church. Only a love for church and churches would move someone to read about a church they have only attended once…praise the Lord for CHBC.
Putman provides nearly 400 pages of systematic theology of the virgin birth, interacting with arguments and affirmations by means of God’s Word. We need not wait till Christmas to think about the virgin birth, but I hope to use some of the content for the Christmas series as we start Luke.
Grace is a largely misunderstood word in our language. DeYoung is taking a journey back to the Canon of Dorts to connect the dots of grace, salvation, and the sovereignty of God. Not only does he source historical theology but includes a section on practical implications.
We are justified by God’s holy declaration in Christ Jesus, but we are still sin marred. How does one worship in between heaven and earth? How do we live and worship as exiles on earth? I’m looking forward to some devotional theology that will be lifted from the pages.
Before you begin thinking that I picked up some mystical self-help book… McCracken builds out a wisdom pyramid that resembles the food pyramid that was forced upon me in my youth. How does one find balance in their intake of information to understand content in a post-truth world? I eagerly anticipate opening the book to see ways information overload is shaping my mind.
Smith walks readers back through the history of biblical hermeneutics to paint a compelling vision of being taught by God. Approaching the Word from more than moral living or a list of fact, but rather encountering God, this seems like a necessary slowdown read over the summer. I love Origen, Hugh, Aquinas, and Luther as a lens to see how to commune with God.
Most of the others on this list are more centric to understanding right doctrine. Dunlop is providing a work that lifts from the Word but is very practical. As sin marred people we will disagree and find difficulty in loving some people really well. The choice is to avoid them or to learn to love them well. If any on this list is helpful for an intro book to reading (I know I know, you don’t read), this is it.
In compiling this list, I am not attempting to impress you with my desire to read. Nor is this list an examination of all of my theological leanings. This list should be an encouragement to you to redeem the time you have for worship…with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I would love to hear what you are reading this summer.
To God be the glory forever and ever Amen.
-Pastor John Richardson
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