Issue #143

Your weekly roundup of insights and resources to help you become a more productive Christian.

​Read on the Web​

In Today’s Issue:

• 8 Tips for Becoming a Better Reader
• How I Read 50 Books a Year
• How John Piper Marks Up His Books
• 2024 Christian Reading Challenge
• Plan Your Year for the Glory of God

Dear steward,

This edition of the newsletter is dedicated to reading.

Every resource below is handpicked to help you become a better and more prolific reader in 2024.

But before we dive in, I need to remind you one last time that our Plan Your 2024 for the Glory of God workshop is happening tomorrow, December 15th, at 12 pm EST.

I really hope you can join us for this free, live webinar designed to help you create a plan for the new year that puts Christ first.

We currently have just shy of 700 people registered. And I'd love to see us hit the 1,000-person limit so I can justify the webinar package expense to my accountant. So if you aren't registered, register! And if you are, please share the link with your Christian family, friends, and colleagues.

Alrighty, let's dive into this special reading edition of the newsletter.

• How could a good God allow evil?
• Is the Bible homophobic?
• Is Christ really the only way?

Whether you’re new to the faith or have been raised in Christianity your whole life, these questions have most likely crossed your mind, perhaps even creating serious doubts for yourself or someone you know.

If you want to deepen your own faith or help those who are struggling, we invite you to join us for our weekend seminar, “Christianity vs. Everybody,” hosted by Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.

We’ll tackle these difficult questions, engage in helpful discussion, and also take time to have some fun together!

• When: January 6, 2024 – 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM
• Who: Young adults (college & career)
• Where: First Baptist Church of Troy, MI (2601 John R Rd, Troy, MI 48083)

​8 Tips for Becoming a Better Reader (8 mins)

It's not just about reading more books, but about reading them well. Watch, read, or listen to these 8 tips that will help you get more out of whatever you read.

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​How I Read 50 Books A Year (6 mins)

Several of you asked if I’d share more about my reading strategies for my annual reading goal. So in this article, I share how I:

• Set a reading goal for the year & track it
• Make a reading list
• Schedule time to read
• Replace distractions with reading
• Take advantage of multiple formats

​How John Piper Marks Up His Books (8 mins)

John Piper / Desiring God

An avid reader and author, Piper shares how exactly he marks up his books as he reads. A lot of great tips in this one.

​How (and why) I read 150 books a year (7 mins)

Ray Fowler is a pastor and he reads a lot of books. I really enjoyed hearing both his reasoning for reading so much and how he structures his time to be able to do it.

You might be surprised to learn that he’s accomplishing this feat with three daily reading blocks: half an hour in the morning, an hour in the afternoon, and an hour at night.

​2024 Christian Reading Challenge (3 mins)

Tim Challies shared his 2024 Christian Reading Challenge this morning. This is a great way to help create your own reading list for the year.

There are levels for every type of reader:

• The Light Reader. This plan has 13 books which sets a pace of 1 book every 4 weeks.
• The Avid Reader. The Avid plan adds another 13 books which increases the pace to 1 book every 2 weeks.
• The Committed Reader. This plan adds a further 26 books, bringing the total to 52, or 1 book every week.
• The Obsessed Reader. The Obsessed plan doubles the total to 104 books which sets a demanding pace of 2 books every week.

And you can even grab a beautiful wall poster version of the challenge.

Getting the Kids Involved

Loved this idea from Josh Daws for encouraging your kids to read more.

Josh Daws @JoshDaws Breaking my Twitter fast to celebrate my son. In January, I promised him a Kindle Scribe if he read 100 books this year. He made it with a few weeks to spare. I'm so stinking proud of him. His list of books is below. 10:10 AM • Dec 9, 2023 56 Retweets 3164 Likes Read 107 replies

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One last thing...

At the end of each year, I host a free webinar on how to make a God-glorifying plan for the year to come.

This event is designed to help you:

• Get clarity on your priorities
• Set goals for the year to come
• Create visibility on your schedule
• And do it all with an eye toward honoring Christ

Plan Your 2024 for the Glory of God will be on December 15th at 12 p.m. EST. And it’s completely free to attend.

Even if you can't make it live, all registrants will be sent a recording of the event and the PDF workbook.

​Register here.

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For His glory,

Reagan Rose

Reagan Rose

I talk about personal productivity from a Christian perspective. Creator of ​Redeeming Productivity​.

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