I’ll be featuring guest posts from time to time. It’ll be a great way to hear different perspectives and recommendations, and also get to know people from across our network. We’ll have a short bio, including favorite book & a fun fact at the end of each guest post.
Our first guest post is from Ben, who is a youth mentor with AYM Bay Area. Take it away, Ben!
I’ve been on a bit of a quest ever since I read the Triumph of Christianity (2011) by Rodney Stark. He tells a very positive story about Christian history and corrects the historical record on things like the Dark Ages (not dark!) and the Inquisition (not nearly as bad as people think it is). This was all news to me so I guess wanted to learn more. Long story short, I have three more books to recommend!
Dominion (2019) by Tom Holland – most of you have probably heard of this book. It is very good! It tells both Christian history, the good and the bad, and charts how Christian ideas have transformed our society. It is also very LONG – and personally I think it loses steam in the second half. But on the upside Holland is an engaging writer and some of the historical detail he gives is riveting.
Bullies and Saints (2021) by John Dickson – this is an awesome book! Basically he owns the evil of church history (like the Crusades) but also reports on what was good and beautiful, and he has a few frameworks for thinking about how the church can be both the light of the world and at times terrible. It focuses on the history and the context, and I learned a lot, even after reading the previous two books. It’s much shorter and more readable than Dominion, with an apologetic angle.
The Air We Breathe (2022) by Glen Scrivener – this book focuses on how our modern Western values, and even the culture wars we’re having, are all grounded in Christian assumptions. He charts how they developed in history but the book is more about thinking through those values. I thought I wouldn’t learn much after the other three but I was wrong! I learned both new history and new ways of thinking about these values and culture today. I’d say it’s like a shorter and punchier version of Dominion but organized topically, not chronologically, and with some other novel material.
If you are are intimidated by Dominion or just not interested enough for such a long book, I totally recommend the other two!
Personally, I think reading all the books above has strengthened my faith. I am less afraid of admitting the church’s faults, and I’ve been inspired by the sacrifices of the saints over the past two millennia. I’ve become much more appreciative of how Jesus has literally changed the world for the better through his church. Indeed, we have a beautiful inheritance!
Emily here with my $0.02. I loved The Air We Breathe and recommend it widely (Book-of-the-Month, January 2024 🙌). I am now motivated to finish Dominion 😅 and will check out Bullies and Saints. Thanks, Ben.
About Ben: Ben grew up as an atheist in southern California but went to UC Berkeley for college and came to Christ through Koinonia, an A2N ministry at UCB. He graduated with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering in 2016 but laments not getting to take more humanities in college! When not working or doing youth ministry, you’ll find him reading, nature walking, bullet journaling, or hanging out with his wife Micaela and daughter Ginny.
Favorite book: The Lord of the Rings // Fun fact: He taught a course on LOTR at Berkeley!
After reading Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation(Book-of-the-Month in April 2024), I immediately wished there was a youth-friendly version to help open the eyes of kids and teens to the effects of smartphones, screens, and social media. I’m pleased to recommend The Amazing Generation, which was released a couple of weeks ago!
Haidt teamed up with Catherine Price, who wrote How to Break Up With Your Phone (updated & revised in 2025). The book does a great job of explaining data and statistics, and exposing the dark side of what tech companies have done to get especially young people addicted to their screens, in an age-appropriate way. It’s alarming without being too intense and dark for kids. The sweet spot is probably around 3rd grade and up, but it varies with each kid, so I recommend parents checking it out first.
It helps that the book is in full-color, with call-outs of key statistics, quotes from people young and old, and profiles of Rebels who are fighting against the Wizards and their Cursed Stones (reference to the opening story, which intrigued all of the kids I read it to). It super helps that there’s a graphic novel interspersed throughout the book. One 6th grade girl said, “This book is too informative. I like the graphic novel parts though.” 🤣 Rather than take that as defeat, I was glad she liked those parts, and hope she’ll read at least some of the “too informative” parts. A 5th grader and 7th grader I know both give the book a thumbs up.
Some of you might be surprised of my recommendation, knowing how I feel about graphic novels (post forthcoming), but with this topic, I take the “by any means necessary” perspective, and if the graphic novel genre draws more young people to read the book, I’m all for it! This book is part of the “E” part of “FEAST” in The Tech Exit (Book-of-the-Month September 2025), and I’m thankful for this resource to educate ourselves and our kids and teens, and to start family conversations around tech use. You can suggest it to read for your family book club, or ease into it by reading the book yourself in sight of your kid so they’re curious about the book, or even leave it lying around the house. They’re bound to pick it up and read some, if not all, of it. The goal is to start the conversation!
This book is a great read for adults, too. The Amazing Generation distilled the core ideas of The Anxious Generation (though I still recommend that one for you all, too!), and it was helpful that the angle is positive, focusing on what can we do together to reclaim childhood rather than giving up and saying, “It is what it is.” And the call to action to be a rebel against “The Man” is always the way to my heart. Let’s be part of the revolution!
If you’ve been at Gracepoint for a little while, or for…many whiles, you know that at the top of Pastor Ed’s recommended reading list are books by C.S. Lewis. For example, Pastor Ed mentioned Miraclesthis past Sunday, and so I know several people have picked that up this week.
Maybe you’ve tried to tackle C.S. Lewis, but have been daunted by the jump from fiction like The Chronicles of Narnia, and allegory like The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce to some of the heavier hitters.
For all you (us) visual learners, I want to share a resource I found out about from my friend Sarah S. from Gracepoint Berkeley. There are 50 C.S. Lewis doodles on YouTube made by an account called…C.S. Lewis Doodles. These are super helpful in understanding the flow of his arguments, and giving visuals to hold on to in your mind. I’m looking forward to using these to help me in my personal study of his works. Thank you, Sarah!
Here are the two videos on “The Grand Miracle” from Miracles, just in time for Good Friday and Easter.
Acts2 Books 