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Healthy Growing Leaders Reading List | Essential Books for Christian Leaders & Pastors

UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF AND OTHERS AS YOU LEAD:

  • 5 Gears—by Jeremie Kubicek, et.al.

  • A Perfect Mess—Abrahamson & Freedman

  • Adapt: Why success always starts with failure—Tim Harford

  • Atomic Habits—James Clear

  • Better Decisions Fewer Regrets—Andy Stanley

  • Brain Chains—Theo Compernolle

  • Coaching for Emotional Intelligence—Bob Wall

  • Cultural Mapping—Erin Meyers

  • Deep Change—Robert Quinn

  • Deep Work—Cal Newport

  • Einstein—Walter Isaacson

  • Emotional Intelligence for Dummies—Steven Stein

  • A Field Guide to Spiritual Gifts—Greg Wiens

  • Focus—Daniel Goleman

  • How To Make the World Add Up—Tim Harford

  • I Hear You—Michael Sorensen

  • Iconoclast—Gregory Bern

  • Irresistible—Andy Stanley

  • Leadership and Self Deception—The Arbinger Group

  • Let your Life Speak—Parker Palmer

  • Lost Connections—Johann Hari

  • Mindset—Carol Dweck

  • Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes—O’Brien & Richards

  • More—Todd Wilson

  • Multipliers—Liz Wiseman

  • Originals—Adam Grant

  • Permission to Feel by Marc Brackett

  • Social Intelligence—Daniel Goleman

  • Stuck—Terry Walling

  • Surfing for God—Michael Cusick

  • The Body Keeps the Score—Bessel Van der Kolk

  • The Brain That Changes Itself—Doidge

  • The Culture Map—Erin Meyer

  • The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die—John Izzo

  • The Advantage: why organizational health trumps everything—Patrick Lencioni

  • The Art of Assessing People—Wiens

  • The Art of Gathering—Parker

  • The Gift of Being yourself—David Benner

  • The Laws of Lifetime Growth—Sullivan & Nomura

  • The Making of a Leader—Robert Clinton

  • The Organized Mind—Daniel Levitin

  • The Practicing Mind—Thomas Sterner

  • Unedited—Charity Walker

  • You are not your Brain—Schwartz and Gladding

 

LEADERSHIP:

  • A Failure of Nerve—Edwin Freidman

  • Breaking all of the Rules—Buckingham

  • Building the Bridge as you Walk on it—Robert Quinn

  • How Great Leaders Think: The art of reframing—Bolman & Deal

  • Leaders Eat Last—Simon Sinek

  • Leadership on the Line—Ron Heifetz

  • Loonshots—Safi Baahcall

  • Masterful Leadership—Blanchard, Ortberg, Blackaby—Audible

  • Mission Drift: The unspoken crises facing leaders—Peter Greer

  • Originals—Adam Grant

  • Reality Based Leadership—Cy Wakeman

  • Replenish—Lance Will

  • Rework—Jason Fried

  • The E-Myth Revisited—Michael Gerber

  • The One Thing—Gary Keller, et. al.

  • The Speed of Trust—Stephen Covey

  • Transforming Leadership—MacGregor Burns

  • Tribal Leadership—David Logan, et. al.

  • Tribes: you need to lead us—Seth Godin

  • Winning on Purpose—John Kaiser

 

CHURCH MISSION:

  • Becoming a Disciplemaker—Harrington & Wiens

  • Becoming a Level 5 Multiplying Church

  • Deep & Wide—Andy Stanley 

  • Dying to Restart—Wiens & Turner

  • Everywhere You Look—Tim Soerens

  • God Space—Doug Polluck

  • How God is in Business—Willard

  • Shaped by God’s Heart—Minatrea  

  • Spirituality and Fundraising—Henry Nouwen

  • The Allure of Gentleness—Dallas Willard

  • The Art of Neighboring—Pathak and Runyon

  • The Disciplemakers Handbook—Bobby Harrington

  • The Invitational Life—Steve Carter

  • The Lost Art of Disciplemaking—Leroy Eims

  • The New Parrish—Paul Sparks, et.al.

  • Toxic Charity—Lupton

  • When Helping Hurts—Corbett

 

SPIRITUAL FORMATION:

  • A Long Obedience in the Same Direction—Eugene Peterson

  • Broken Dreams—Larry Crabb

  • Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Place—Eugene Peterson

  • Contrarians Guide to Knowing God—Larry Osborne

  • Critical Journey of Faith—Janet Hagberg and Robert Guilech

  • How People Grow—Cloud and Townsend

  • How to Read the Bible for All its Worth—Fee & Stewart

  • Integrity—Henry Cloud

  • Life without Lack—Dallas Willard

  • Ordering your Private World—Gordon MacDonald

  • Preparing for Heaven—Gary Black

  • Renovation of the Heart—Dallas Willard

  • Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice—Willard & Johnson

  • Simplify—Bill Hybels

  • Simply Christian—NT Wright

  • Soul Keeping—John Ortberg

  • Spirit of the Disciplines—Dallas Willard

  • The Critical Journey of Faith—Hagberg and Guelich

  • The Divine Conspiracy—Dallas Willard

  • The Sacred Romance—Curtis & Eldridge

  • The Way to Power and Poise—E. Stanley Jones

  • The Way—E. Stanley Jones

 

 

MANAGING CONFLICT AND CHANGE

  • Anatomy of Peace—The Arbinger Group

  • Crucial Conversations—Grenny, et. al.

  • Leading Change—Kotter

  • Managing Transitions—William Bridges

  • Necessary Endings—Henry Cloud

  • The Lost Art of Listening—Michael Nichols

  • Think Again—Adam Grant

  • Unoffendable—Brant Hansen

Additional:

  • The Art of Scientific Investigation by W. I. B. Beverage

  • The Five Laws of Medicine by Siddhartha Mukherjee

  • The Emperor of all Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

  • The Lincolns—Epstein

  • Astrophysics for People in a Hurry—Neil deGrasse Tyson

  • Beyond Weird—Philip Ball

  • Maybe you should talk to Someone, a Therapist—Lori Gottlieb

  • Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Dumb Ox—G. K. Chesterton

  • Steve Jobs—Walter Isaacson

  • The Pleasure of Finding Things—Richard Feynman

  • Virtues of Aging—Jimmy Carter

Leadership Reading Guide

Find the right book for the leadership challenge you're facing.

A curated reading list from Dr. Greg Wiens, built for the real situations ministry leaders carry: burnout, conflict, a stuck team, a board that needs rethinking, a season of change. Search by what you're facing, or browse the full list below.

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Why these books

A list shaped by science, ministry, and a few hard seasons.

Greg spent two decades in ministry, planted a church that didn't grow the way he'd hoped, and went back for a PhD in psychometrics to answer one question: how are leaders actually wired?

These aren't the most-hyped leadership titles of the year. They're the books Greg keeps handing to leaders he's coaching, the ones that hold up under pressure because they understand both the soul and the science of leading well. Every pick earns its place.

Stay grounded in what makes leaders healthier.

Thursday Thoughts with Dr. Greg Wiens, our weekly newsletter.

Join leaders receiving practical clarity, biblical wisdom, and actionable tools.

A book can show you the way. We can show you the wiring.

Reading helps. But the fastest way to lead from health is to see how you are actually wired to lead. Start with a free diagnostic.

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