This should perhaps be obvious and go without saying but the most important book you need to be reading if you are going to engage in urban pastoral ministry is the Bible.
Still, it is worth repeating because sometimes although we know that in theory, we become too focused on the other tools we think we need that we forget that the Bible is itself the one tool and one teacher we need.
We need reminding because we can forget that our main job is going to be to apply God’s word to people’s lives. We will do that in evangelism, in preaching, in one to one pastoral care and we will do it in our leadership meetings and decision making too.
So, make sure you are reading and immersing your self in God’s word. I’d encourage you, if you have never done this to sit down and read the whole Bible cover to cover. There are Bible in a year plans to help with this.
Keep rereading. Take time to read through whole books. Have reading plan that allows you to work through you a whole book over a few weeks. However, there is also benefit in sitting down and reading a whole book in one sitting. Most books of the Bible can be read in full that way and in fact many were intended for that.
After you have read a whole Gospel or epistle, spend a bit if time summing it up. What are the key themes? What is the central message? What is God saying to you and to your church family?
Read shorter passages meditatively taking time to chew them over. Pray in response to each section.
Read with a note pad and pen jotting down your questions. Then dig out some commentaries to help you think through the answers.
You can pastor a church without access to any technical theological books and without qualifications after your name. You cannot pastor without being completely saturated in God’s word.
Faithroots 