The Pastor's Bookshelf
A Preacher Book Club selection
Join Disciples preachers on Zoom on Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 2pm Eastern / 11am Pacific to discuss this book on why pastors should spend time reading fiction.
Reader Recommendation: The Pastor’s Bookshelf: Why Reading Matters for Ministry, by Austin Carty.
Recommended by: Proclamation Project’s Preacher Book Club
The Pastor’s Bookshelf: Why Reading Matters for Ministry is the Preacher Book Club selection for the summer of 2026.
From the publisher:
It’s time to give pastors permission to read books besides the Bible.
Six months into his first senior pastorate, Austin Carty sat in his office reading—not the Bible, not a commentary, not a theological tract, but a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. As the minutes turned to hours, while he sat engrossed in this book, he noticed something: he began feeling uneasy. And then anxious. And then guilty. What would someone think if they opened the door and caught him reading fiction?
For busy pastors (is there any other kind?), time spent reading feels hard to justify, especially when it’s not for sermon prep. But what if reading felt less like a luxury and more like a vocational responsibility—a spiritual practice that bears fruit in every aspect of ministry, from preaching to pastoral care to church leadership?
Austin Carty believes that this is exactly how pastors ought to think about reading. The Pastor’s Bookshelf shows how worthwhile reading is more about formation than information and how, through reading, a pastor becomes a fuller, more enriched human being with a deeper capacity for wisdom and love, better equipped to understand and work for God’s kingdom.
Previous Preacher Book Club Selections:
- Preaching God’s Grand Drama, by Ahmi Lee
- When Church Stops Working, by Andrew Root and Blair D. Bertrand
- A Gospel for All Ages, by David M. Csinos
- The Exvangelicals, by Sarah McCammon
- The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay
- The Bible in the Ashes of Social Chaos, by Lewis Brogdon
- This Here Flesh, by Cole Arthur Riley
You might also find helpful:
- Recovering the Soul of Preaching Through Rest — a keynote on slowing down, paying attention, and renewing the inner life of the preacher
- The Preaching Life, by Barbara Brown Taylor — a preaching autobiography exploring vocation, formation, and what it means to be a preacher
- Mindfulness and Christian Spirituality — bridges contemplative Christian tradition with the practice of presence and attentiveness in ministry
