Best Christian Books on the Church: 12 Classics to Read Free
Start with A. J. Gordon's How Christ Came to Church. A Boston pastor dreamed that a stranger came to his church one Sunday, listened to the sermon and slipped out, and that he learned afterward it was Jesus. The dream changed how Gordon led his congregation, and the short book that came out of it will change how you walk into yours. If you want a book on being a church member, read John Angell James's The Church in Earnest.
The old writers loved the church and took it seriously. They taught that the church is the body of Christ and the household of God, not a club or a building. Christ is its only head, and His word and Spirit rule it. Every believer belongs in a local congregation, under its teaching and care, using his gifts for others. Pride and party spirit are the great enemies of its unity. And a church is alive only when Christ Himself is present in it, so a busy church can still be a dead one.
Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.
Ephesians 5:25
Here are twelve of the best books on the church in TheWay Library, all free to read. They come from several traditions, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregational and Brethren, and they don't agree on everything. They do agree on Christ.
Start here
1. How Christ Came to Church, by A. J. Gordon
Gordon tells his dream, then draws its lessons in short chapters: Christ is here today by His Spirit, every service is held in His presence, and the temple of God is holy. It led him to clear worldly entertainment out of his church's worship. Arthur T. Pierson adds a short life of Gordon.
Yet Christ is still Christ; and he has never outgrown the print of the nails.
How Christ Came to Church, In Thy Light
See Who Was A. J. Gordon? Read How Christ Came to Church.
2. The Church in Earnest, by John Angell James
The companion to James's book for ministers, written for church members. He sets out what the church is meant to do in the world, reads Christ's letters to the seven churches in Revelation, and calls for earnestness in personal faith, in reaching others, in the home and in church life.
The doctrine will not always preserve life, but life will always preserve doctrine.
The Church in Earnest, Inducements to Earnestness
See Who Was John Angell James? Read The Church in Earnest.
3. An Exhortation to Peace and Unity
A short treatise printed among John Bunyan's works, on "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." It explains what church unity rests on, what division costs, and gives twelve directions for keeping peace. Under an hour, and every church member should read it.
Divisions and want of peace keep those out of the church that would come in; and cause many to go out that are in.
An Exhortation to Peace and Unity
Read An Exhortation to Peace and Unity.
The church in the New Testament
4. Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts, by Alexander Maclaren
Nearly a hundred sermon-expositions on Acts, from the Ascension to Paul in Rome. Maclaren reads the whole book as the record of the ascended Christ still at work in and through His church.
The very keynote of this Book of the Acts is the work of the ascended Christ in and for His Church.
Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts, The First Preaching at Antioch
See Who Was Alexander Maclaren? Read Maclaren on Acts.
5. Ephesian Studies, by H. C. G. Moule
Ephesians is Paul's letter on the church: one body, one Spirit, Jew and Gentile made one new man, gifts given for the building up of the body. Moule's devotional studies follow it from the praise for salvation to unity, gifts, the home and the armor of God. Read Ephesian Studies.
6. The Spirit's Voice to the Churches, by Arthur T. Pierson
Five short addresses from the years of the Welsh revival, on resisting, receiving and honoring the Holy Spirit in the assembly. Pierson spent five weeks in Wales and reports what he learned.
The greatest difficulty in adjusting oneself to the will of God lies often not at all in known sin, but in doubtful indulgence.
The Spirit's Voice to the Churches, Resisting the Holy Ghost
See Who Was Arthur T. Pierson? Read The Spirit's Voice to the Churches.
Unity and division
7. The Causes, Evils, and Cures of Heart and Church Divisions, by Jeremiah Burroughs and Richard Baxter
Francis Asbury put together extracts from two Puritan books on division for American Methodists, after a painful split among his own preachers. It names pride and party spirit as the root causes, counts the cost of division, and gives many directions for healing it.
God shows that he can own us, notwithstanding all our infirmities; why should not we own our brethren, notwithstanding their infirmities?
The Causes, Evils, and Cures of Heart and Church Divisions, The Causes of Divisions
Read The Causes, Evils, and Cures.
8. A Christian Directory, Part 3, by Richard Baxter
"Christian Ecclesiastics": Baxter's practical directions on worship, the people's duty to their pastors, behavior in public worship, and the union and communion of saints, written for a badly divided English church. Then come some 170 questions of conscience, ending with which books to read if you can only afford a few.
Accordingly let the interest of the church of Christ be very much upon your heart, and pray as hard for it as for yourself.
A Christian Directory, Part 3, How to Behave Ourselves in the Public Assemblies
See Who Was Richard Baxter? Read A Christian Directory, Part 3.
Church order and worship
9. Knots Untied, by J. C. Ryle
Ryle's papers on questions disputed among English churchmen: what evangelical religion is, baptism, the Lord's Supper, the church, the priest, confession and worship. Clear and firm, written from inside the Church of England. His Principles for Churchmen, from the end of his life as bishop of Liverpool, covers similar ground.
Interpose anything between man and Christ, and man will neglect Christ for the thing interposed!
Knots Untied, Evangelical Religion
See Who Was J. C. Ryle? Read Knots Untied or Principles for Churchmen.
10. Six Lectures on the Church of God, by William Kelly
The early Brethren view, argued from Acts, Ephesians and 1 Corinthians: one body formed by the Spirit at Pentecost, the Spirit's rule in the assembly, worship around the Lord's table, and gifts. Even readers who don't share his conclusions find his stress on the Spirit's presence searching.
What a call for the painstaking and self-abnegation of love!
Six Lectures on Fundamental Truths Connected with the Church of God, The Assembly, and Ministry
See Who Was William Kelly? Read Kelly's Six Lectures.
11. The Assembly of God, by C. H. Mackintosh
Short papers by another Brethren writer: the man of God in a day of ruin, the Lord's Supper, the assembly of God, the priesthood of all believers, and three chapters to evangelists. Warm and devotional. Read The Assembly of God.
12. A Short Essay Toward the Improvement of Psalmody, by Isaac Watts
Should churches sing only the Psalms, or new hymns too? In 1707 Watts argued from the New Testament that Christians may sing hymns that praise God in the name of Christ. The case he made changed how English-speaking churches worship. A short read.
Is not our Heart often warm'd with holy Delight in the Contemplation of the Son of God our dear Redeemer whose Love was stronger than Death?
A Short Essay Toward the Improvement of Psalmody
See Who Was Isaac Watts? Read Watts on Psalmody.
How to read these books
Read Gordon and Bunyan first. Both are short, and both will change how you think about Sunday morning and the people you sit with. Then take James or Baxter. Read the books on order and worship last, and read more than one tradition.
For the people who lead churches, see our guide to the best books on pastoral ministry. For churches brought back to life, see the best books on revival, and for praying together, Spurgeon's Only a Prayer Meeting in the best books on prayer. More of these authors are on their pages: A. J. Gordon, John Angell James and J. C. Ryle.