Al Mohler and C.J. Mahaney have pumped out their recommended summer reading list, so of course you are all on pins and needles to know mine...okay, stop laughing...that's rude.
What I would recommend this summer is going back to the basics of the faith. You can download Mark Driscoll's Doctrine series from iTunes while reading through the Bible (I recommend the NLT or the ESV) and supplement it with Graeme Goldsworthy's "According the Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible." "According to the Plan" is a condensed, lay friendly version of Goldworthy's brilliant Kingdom trilogy. If you flip through this and find it too daunting then check out Vaughn Roberts' "God's Big Picture." Each will take you on a tour of the Bible that will help you see how it all fits together. Great stuff.
Another great back to basics approach is to at least read through the New Testament this summer. I would start with Luke-Acts then move through Paul's letters and then go back and read the Gospel of John and some of the General Epistles (James, Jude, 1-3 John) and then read the Gospel of Mark along with 1-2 Peter and then the Gospel of Matthew followed by Hebrews and the Book of Revelation. I would supplement it with "Vintage Jesus" by Mark Driscoll & Gary Breshears, which offers clear answers to the common questions surrounding the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus in a style that dude's can appreciate. You can also go back via iTunes and download the sermon series on which the book is based on. Driscoll has a series of small books due out at the end of the month (100 pages or less) dealing with the doctrine of God, church leadership, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The leadership of Revolution will consider using all of them for the Discipleship classes, but more on that later.
If you are a true geek like me and want to really dig in deep then I would once again recommend taking the Puritan Reading Challenge (so far? Awesome!) and picking up Tim Keller's "The Reason for God" and "Why We're Not Emergent by Two Guys Who Should Be" by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck. More later. Time to get to work.
