A Unity of Purpose: 100 Years of the SBC Cooperative Program (B&H, 2025), edited by Tony Wolfe and W. Madison Grace II
The nations were calling. A theology of cooperation was formalizing. Best business practices of the day were refining. A denominational conscience was solidifying. Baptists acknowledged God’s call to a great work that would require a great sacrifice and proposed a new funding model for the new day.
Over the next 150 years, Southern Baptists would give over $20 billion through their Cooperative Program to fund local, national, and international missions; educate their pastors and church leaders; present a unified voice in the public square; and more. The Cooperative Program became the largest voluntary Great Commission funding mechanism the world has ever known.
But is the Cooperative Program merely Southern Baptist history? Does that heroic spirit of strategic, sacrificial cooperation still burn within the Baptist body? Will the challenges and opportunities of the coming decades be best met by the same financial program, or is something else on the horizon?
Tony Wolfe, who serves as executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, and W. Madison Grace II gather a group of leading pastors, scholars and SBC leaders to examine the denomination’s financial cooperation that has funded seminaries and missionaries and has promoted gospel proclamation for the past 100 years.
Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry (Crossway, 2012) by Paul David Tripp
After traveling the globe and speaking to thousands of churches worldwide, Paul David Tripp has discovered a serious problem within pastoral culture.
He is not only concerned about the spiritual life of the pastor, but also with the very community of people that trains him, calls him, relates to him, and restores him if necessary.
Dangerous Calling reveals the truth that the culture surrounding our pastors is spiritually unhealthy — an environment that actively undermines the wellbeing and efficacy of our church leaders and thus the entire church body.
God’s Crime Scene: A Cold-Case Detective Examines the Evidence for a Divinely Created Universe (David C. Cook, 2015) by J. Warner Wallace
There are four ways to die, and only one of them requires an intruder. Suicides, accidental, and natural deaths can occur without any evidence from outside the room. But murders typically involve suspects external to the crime scene. If there’s evidence of an outside intruder, homicide detectives have to prepare for a chase. Intruders turn death scenes into crime scenes.
J. Warner Wallace is a former atheist, seasoned cold-case detective, and popular national speaker. With the expertise of a cold-case detective, the author examines eight critical pieces of evidence in the “crime scene” of the universe to determine if they point to a Divine Intruder.
Prioritizing Missions in the Church (9Marks/Crossway, 2025) by Aaron Menikoff and Harshit Singh
What role should the local church play in the mission to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth? Many Christians view missions work as a task for large churches or parachurch ministries. But God commands all believers in churches of all sizes to protect and proclaim His Word. Working together patiently and faithfully, we can reach nations with the gospel.