Read These Words
My Recommended Reading From 2024
A Special Note
Hey!
Before we dive into my recommended reading from this year, I want to say thank you.
Whether you’re a free subscriber or support this work financially—thank you.
Your time, attention, and investment mean the world to me.
I can’t wait to expand this platform in 2025.
Much love,
Sean
Formation doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s the cumulative effect of the voices we let in, the habits we cultivate, and the environments we create.
As a founding pastor, writer, and transformational coach, I live in three seats where formation is central—not just for others, but for me. Each seat calls for a different perspective: pastoring requires spiritual formation, writing demands clarity of thought, and coaching involves optimizing potential.
In all three, books have been invaluable tools for shaping how I see the world and lead others.
A good book isn’t just read; it reads you. It exposes blind spots, challenges assumptions, and opens up new possibilities.
In 2024, I encountered books that did just that. They weren’t just informative; they were formative, helping me better live out my calling to work the words of Jesus.
Here are the top three books in no particular order that shaped my year.
Cal Newport, Slow Productivity
Do fewer things.
Wait, what?
That’s the kind of countercultural wisdom you’ll find in Slow Productivity, and it’s why Cal Newport continues to prove he’s one of the most brilliant thinkers of our time.
This book didn’t just challenge my approach to productivity—it dismantled it.
For someone like me, wired to “go get it” and prone to the treadmill of burnout, Newport’s invitation to slow down felt both radical and relieving.
Instead of doing more, faster, he argues for doing fewer things, better.
It’s not about abandoning ambition but redirecting it toward work that matters. The result? A slower, more sustainable way of getting things done. This book rocked my world and shifted my paradigm, offering a better way forward for anyone who feels crushed by the relentless hustle of modern life.
I can’t recommend it enough.
Walter Brueggemann, Sabbath as Resistance
Growing up in church, I had the Ten Commandments memorized early on—including the fourth one: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Got it! Or so I thought.
To be honest, I had it committed to memory but not to practice.
I was confident God still cared about things like not killing or stealing, but the Sabbath? That felt outdated, like an ancient relic irrelevant to modern life.
Brueggemann’s Sabbath as Resistance changed everything.
It situates the Sabbath in its historical context, where it stood as more than rest but a bold act of resistance against the systems of the world.
This book helped me embrace the Sabbath personally as a follower of Jesus and corporately as a founding pastor attempting to weave it into the early foundations of our church.
It’s not easy. Between my Type A personality and living in a culture of unrelenting pace and celebrated grind, unhurrying my soul feels like trying to swim up a flight of stairs.
But, in the words of Dory, I “just keep swimming!”
N.T. Wright & Michael F. Bird, Jesus and the Powers
We live in America, where politics and faith can instantly turn a dinner table into a battlefield.
The days of healthy debates and bipartisan politics feel like a distant memory. They’ve been replaced by disinformation, threats of violence, and the rise of anti-democratic behaviors.
As a follower of Jesus, who also happens to be an American, I’ve wrestled deeply with the question: What am I to do?
Jesus and the Powers stirred my soul in ways I didn’t expect. Personally and pastorally, it has given me a framework to sort through the complexities of political theology and witness.
Yale University Professor Emeritus Noah Porter says it best: “I know of no other book that comes close to locating, so insightfully and in such rich detail, Christian political activity within the context of the coming of the kingdom.”
This book is so good—and so needed.
In a time when tyranny threatens the globe and democracy feels fragile, followers of Jesus need a way to navigate the collision between our faith and an increasingly post-Christian society. Wright and Bird address this with sharp clarity: “And there we will most assuredly have the true metal of our faith tested, either to have our complicity purchased with gold, or to bear the cost of irritating a godless civil power by our unwavering allegiance to Jesus and his gospel.”
Whew.
This book helped me reconcile Paul’s unqualified call to submit to governing authorities in Romans 13 with the harsh realities of a dysfunctional democracy. For pastors especially, this should be required reading—not for better organizational leadership, but for sharper thought leadership in an era where clarity, courage, and conviction are desperately needed.
Bonus Recommendation For Parents: Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation
This book is a must-read if you’re a parent or someone who cares about the next generation.
In The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt dives into the unique pressures facing today’s youth, from the effects of social media to the growing epidemic of anxiety and depression.
It’s not just another book on parenting or culture—it’s a wake-up call.
Haidt’s research is sobering and eye-opening, but its practical guidance sets this book apart. He doesn’t just diagnose the problem; he offers a roadmap for how we can help this generation thrive.
As a parent and pastor passionate about the next generation, this book struck a different chord with me. It challenged me to think critically about the systems we’ve built and the habits we’ve normalized that contribute to this growing crisis.
If you want to understand what’s happening with today’s kids—and how you can be part of the solution—this book will change your life.
More importantly, it could change theirs.
In the spirit of simplicity, I’ll stop there.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
PS: As an Amazon Affiliate, Sean Dreher Ministries receives a small commission from qualifying purchases made from links.