bible

Top Ten Books Read in 2025

Peter LeDucLeave a comment

This is the eighth year that I’ve been writing these posts. This past year was particularly busy and challenging, so I didn’t get to read as much as I had hoped. Let’s just say certain opportunities in my church and priorities in my family took precedence and reading got relegated to the back burner for about six months. The focus of my study this past year centered on three major themes—biblical counseling, secular theory, and creativity (poetry in particular). I hope you enjoy these reflections and find something from my list that you can pick up and read in the new year. Notice, I snuck in an eleventh book.

Continue reading →

Top Ten Books Read in 2024

Peter LeDucLeave a comment

It’s hard to believe that today is the last day of 2024. It’s been a great year. While our church plant has become independent and continues to grow, I, too, am growing as a pastor. This means that I’m learning to balance shepherding, sermon prep, administration, counseling, fitness, and family life with good reading habits. I’ve added some audiobooks to keep up with my goals. Reading is necessary and formative. Good books are timeless and timely. They engage the mind by interacting with and challenging influential modern assumptions that we unconsciously imbibe on a regular basis. I need good books to awaken me from my slumber and arouse me from my stupor. I need good books to challenge my thinking and sharpen sharpen my skills. I need good books to motivate me to live for the cause of Christ and truth in a world committed to neither.

Here are the top ten books that I enjoyed the most and have had a profound impact on my life and mind—

Continue reading →

Immeasurably More: Reflecting on Two Years of Church Planting

Peter LeDucLeave a comment

Two years ago—today—a group of us launched Grace Church of Dover in the Tri-City area of the New Hampshire Seacoast. Two months into the plant, I wrote a prospective philosophy of ministry called Simple, Small, and Strategic. In it I shared our distinctives, laid out expectations, and charted our course as a new church. I laid out a vision where culture eats strategy and maturity beats momentum. In other words, when it comes to church growth, depth is more important than breadth, and conviction is more essential than ingenuity. I explained that the truth-and-love, Gospel culture of deep doctrine and deep relationships we aimed for could not be fast-tracked without bypassing the hard, consistent groundwork that needed to be done. I’m humbled and happy to report the extraordinary fruit that God has provided in spite of our many insufficiencies and despite myriad obstacles. He has rewarded our ordinary faithfulness.

Continue reading →

Biblical Counseling and The Psychologies: Review and Reflection

Peter LeDuc1 Comment

Dr. Ernie Baker’s new book, Biblical Counseling and the Psychologies (Shepherd Press, 2023, 100 pages), seeks to help biblical counselors engage thoughtfully, critically, and cautiously with current trends in the biblical counseling movement, especially those that are quick to integrate with and accept—as authoritative—the secular theories that currently grip the greater culture’s imagination. This insightful resource exposes the perils and pitfalls of integration, provides a framework for assessing various methodologies, and encourages steadfastness in biblical methodology

Continue reading →

Top Ten Books Read in 2023

Peter LeDucLeave a comment

It’s that time of year again. I am looking back at all I read this past year and looking ahead at my goals for the new year. Physically, movement is life. Reading is the motion and animation of the inner life. It’s a necessary and enriching experience without which my heart and mind would only grow stagnant. It keeps me aware of the past, conversant in our ever-changing culture, immersed in otherworldly imagination, sharpened by stimulating prose, and rooted in timeless truths. Tim Keller felt compelled to read broadly and deeply in order to prevent his preaching from growing stale and repetitive. I want to follow in that sentiment, which is brimming with both humility and wisdom. In descending order, here are the books that I enjoyed most this past year. I recommend them to you. Tolle lege!

Continue reading →