First, read the pastors’ reading list at http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/21674.htm

Two key sections missing: church history, and lexicons.

To rectify this, Dr Ken Manley (retired Australian Baptist prof. of church history) wrote:

Rowland,

There are many books which I would think a busy pastor would value and find not only inspiring but offer many a good illustration for a sermon.

In my experience the more genuinely ‘busy’ a pastor is the more they structure in time for reading and reflection. From many I would suggest as starters:

David Bebbington, The Dominance of Evangelicalism: The age of Spurgeon and Moody (IVP, 2005). One in a series of 5 volumes ‘A History of Evangelicalism’.

Paul Fiddes, Tracks and Traces. Baptist identity in Church and Theology (Paternoster, 2003). Theology but a collection of essays with a strong Baptist history content.

Ian Breward, A History of the Churches in Australasia (OUP, 2001)

S Piggin, Evangelical Christianity in Australia (Melbourne, 1996)

H Carey, Believing in Australia (Allen & Unwin, 1996).

(These last 3 are also inviting busy pastors to reflect on the fact that they live in Australia. I believe there are some books which attempt to tell something of the Australian Baptist story.)

[Rowland's note: Ken is being humbly oblique here: see the recommendations in the Wikipedia article on Australian Baptists -