Community groups are often looking for tools and resources to help them grow and develop. Below you'll find books on a variety of different topics; we encourage you to pick a book off of this list of and go over it together as a community group this year!
Is your community group more interested in curriculum to work through together? Check out this list of additional resources.
Note: Watermark does not endorse any particular author or book.
Recommended Resources for 2018
SPIRITUAL LIFE
Come and See: Everything You Ever Wanted in the One Place You Would Never Look
By Todd Wagner
Come and See what? LIFE as God intended irresistibly revealed today in a way that is every bit as awe-inspiring and life-changing as when Jesus Himself walked the earth.
Todd Wagner invites readers to experience the adventure, goodness, and fullness of life that God has intended for humankind from the beginning of time and especially today through His provision through His people. Weekly meetings of mostly bored adults who regularly attend services have nothing to do with God’s vision for His people. Wagner paints the picture of a perfect Father’s intention to bring His people into an adventurous life full of authentic relationships, powerful transformation, and seemingly impossible significance and meaning.
BIBLE STUDY
Romans 1-7 For You & Romans 8-16 For You
By Timothy Keller
Join Timothy Keller as he opens the Book of Romans, helping you to get to grips with its meaning and showing how it transforms our hearts and lives today. Written for people of every age and stage, from enquirers to new believers to pastors and teachers, this flexible resource is for you to: READ: As a guide to this wonderful letter, helping you appreciate the great gift of righteousness with God. FEED: As a daily devotional to help you grow in Christ as you read and meditate on this portion of God’s Word. LEAD: As notes to aid you in explaining, illustrating and applying Romans. Whoever you are, and however you use it, this is... Romans For You.
COMMUNITY
Everybody's Normal ‘Till You Get to Know Them
By John Ortberg
Normal? Who’s normal? Not you, that’s for sure! No one you’ve ever met, either. None of us are normal according to God’s definition, and the closer we get to each other, the plainer that becomes. Yet for all our quirks, sins, and jagged edges, we need each other. Community is more than just a word―it is one of our most fundamental requirements. So how do flawed, abnormal people such as ourselves master the forces that can drive us apart and come together in the life-changing relationships God designed us for?
In Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them, John Ortberg zooms in on the things that make community tick. You’ll get a thought-provoking look at God’s heart, at others, and at yourself. Even better, you’ll gain wisdom and tools for drawing closer to others in powerful, impactful ways. With humor, insight, and a gift for storytelling, Ortberg shows how community pays tremendous dividends in happiness, health, support, and growth. It’s where all of us weird, unwieldy people encounter God’s love in tangible ways and discover the transforming power of being loved, accepted, and valued just the way we are.
YOUNG ADULTS & SINGLES
Not Yet Married: The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness and Dating
By Marshall Segall
Many of you grew up assuming that marriage would meet all of your needs and unlock God’s purposes for you. But God has far more planned for you than your future marriage. Not Yet Married is not about waiting quietly in the corner of the world for God to bring you “the one,” but about inspiring you to live and date for more now.
If you follow Jesus, the search for a spouse is no longer a pursuit of the perfect person, but a pursuit of more of God. He will likely write a love story for you different than the one you would write for yourself, but that’s because he loves you and knows how to write a better story. This book was written to help you find real hope, happiness, and purpose in your not-yet-married life.
MARRIAGE
Cherish: The One Word That Changes Everything for Your Marriage
By Gary L. Thomas
“Most marriages survive by gritting teeth and holding on. But marriages can and will not only survive but thrive when husbands and wives learn to cherish one another.”
Those are the powerful words of bestselling author Gary Thomas in his newest book—Cherish. And in a world desperate for marriage redemption, it is needed now more than ever. Thomas shows that although there are a countless number of marriages consisting of two people just going through the motions, there are real ways this pattern can be reversed: when husbands and wives learn to cherish one another in proven, loving, and everyday actions and words. Through personal stories and real-world examples, Thomas proves what husbands and wives can begin doing today to turn their marriage around—even a marriage marred by neglect and disrespect.
PARENTING
Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family
By Paul David Tripp
What is your calling as a parent? In the midst of folding laundry, coordinating carpool schedules, and breaking up fights, many parents get lost. Feeling pressure to do everything “right” and raise up “good” children, it’s easy to lose sight of our ultimate purpose as parents in the quest for practical tips and guaranteed formulas.
In this life-giving book, Paul Tripp offers parents much more than a to-do list. Instead, he presents us with a big-picture view of God’s plan for us as parents. Outlining fourteen foundational principles centered on the gospel, he shows that we need more than the latest parenting strategy or list of techniques. Rather, we need the rescuing grace of God—grace that has the power to shape how we view everything we do as parents.
Freed from the burden of trying to manufacture life-change in our children’s hearts, we can embrace a grand perspective of parenting overflowing with vision, purpose, and joy.
STEWARDSHIP
The Treasure Principle: Unlocking the Secret of Joyful Giving
By Randy Alcorn
Bestselling author Randy Alcorn introduced readers to a revolution in material freedom and radical generosity with the release of the original The Treasure Principle in 2001. Now the revision to the compact, perennial bestseller includes a provocative new concluding chapter depicting God asking a believer questions about his stewardship over material resources. Readers are moved from the realms of thoughtful Bible exposition into the highly personal arena of everyday life. Because when Jesus told His followers to “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” He intended that they discover an astounding secret: how joyful giving brings God maximum glory and His children maximum pleasure.
THEOLOGY
The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God & Their Meaning in the Christian Life
By A.W. Tozer
This classic of Christian testimony and devotion explores the attributes of God in words that fly straight to the heart. A superb aid to strengthening and deepening the spiritual life, each chapter begins with a prayer, lucidly discusses a divine aspect--from God's infinity to God's love--and relates that aspect to today's world, while pointing always to God's wonder and inscrutability.
Tozer asserts that the cause of many of our modern spiritual woes is the loss in today's church of a lofty concept of God. He argues persuasively that the cure lies in our rediscovery of God's majesty. "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us," he writes. "The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God." The Knowledge of the Holy bears eloquent witness to the concept of God's majesty, encourages reverent meditation on the being of God, and offers a way to bring back spiritual power to our lives.
APOLOGETICS
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
By Timothy Keller
Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, addresses the frequent doubts that skeptics, and even ardent believers, have about religion. Using literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and potent reasoning, Keller explains how the belief in a Christian God is, in fact, a sound and rational one. To true believers he offers a solid platform on which to stand their ground against the backlash to religion created by the Age of Skepticism. And to skeptics, atheists, and agnostics, he provides a challenging argument for pursuing the reason for God.