It’s been eerily quiet in the DYM Book Club these last summer months, but we’re back!

As anyone who is on Facebook may have noticed, there’s a post that keeps popping up where people share 10 books that have been most influential to them. I’m usually not a fan of being ‘forced’ to do anything (I can be grateful for three things every day without people telling me to, thank you very much!), but I love this idea. It’s given me interesting insights into the kind of books that have touched my Facebook friends, influenced them. 

And I’m not the only one who thought this was interesting, as Mashable shared some fascinating data compiled from all these top 10 of most influential books Facebook update. OK, so Harry Potter makes it to the top spot, which may anger some Christians. But God’s Word still makes it to number 6, which suprised me in a good way. Plus the top 25 or so contain some true classics.

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I thought it would be great to share some of our own most influential books here as well. They can be fiction or non-fiction, Christian or not, youth ministry related or completely something else. The only criterium is that these books have influenced you in a big way, have touched you, or have stayed with you affter reading them.

So here’s my Top 10 of most influential books in random order (I’m excluding the Bible though, since I consider that to be in a class on its own! I’ve also excluded fiction because I could make a top 10 of that all on its own, I love books so much…)) and I hope you’ll share yours in the comments or in the DYM Book Club Facebook Group!

  1. The Power of Focus  – Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt
  2. Contemplative Youth Ministry – Mark Yaconelli
  3. Building a Discipling Culture – Mike Breen
  4. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die– Chip and Dan Heath
  5. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work– Chip and Dan Heath
  6. The Grace Awakening– Charles Swindoll
  7. Conspiracy of Kindness– Steve Sjogren
  8. The Ragamuffin Gospel– Brendan Manning
  9. Heaven– Randy Alcorn
  10. How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels– N.T. Wright

I could have easily listed 10 more books that have impacted me, but let’s keep it at this for now. I’d love to see your lists!

(Photo Credit: Kate ter Haar)