SOLA Network is proud to present our list of the best Christian books by Asian American authors that were published in 2022. We are encouraged that Asian American voices are being added to Christian bookshelves and libraries all over the world. Our list was curated by our SOLA Editorial Board and staff. This year, we are proud to present seven books, and we hope to have longer lists in the future.
This article contains theological books, children’s books, and devotionals—meaning there’s something for everyone. We hope you will be encouraged by our Asian American brothers and sisters as they share their stories for the entire body of Christ.
Doing Asian American Theology: A Contextual Framework for Faith and Practice by Daniel D. Lee
Book description from the publisher:
“Asian American theology is about God revealed in Jesus Christ in covenantal relationship with Asian Americans qua Asian Americans. Thus, Asian American theology is about Asian Americans as well, as human covenant partners alongside of God.”
In doing Asian American theology, Daniel D. Lee focuses on Asian American identity and its relationship to faith and theology, providing a vocabulary and grammar, and laying out a methodology for Asian American theologies in their ethnic, generational, and regional differences. Lee’s framework for Asian American theological contextuality proposes an Asian American quadrilateral of the intersection of Asian heritage, migration experience, American culture, and racialization. This methodology incorporates the need for personal integration and communal journey, especially in the work of Asian American ministry. With interdisciplinary insights from interpersonal neurobiology and trauma theory, he offers a process of integration and reconciliation for Asian American theologies in service of Asian American communities of every kind.
Purchase Doing Asian American Theology through Intervarsity Press, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.
Spurgeon the Pastor: Recovering a Biblical and Theological Vision for Ministry by Geoff Chang
Book description from the publisher:
How would you get more than 5,000 people to show up at your church?
Almost every pastor feels the pressure to get people in the doors. More people means more success, more stability, and more godly influence, right? Often, in their zeal for fruit and growth, pastors and church leaders adopt worldly mechanisms for church growth that end up undermining the very call God has given them.
Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, was a pastor to well over 5,000 people in a day long before “mega-churches” were the norm. But you might be surprised to know that Spurgeon’s vision for ministry was not pragmatic. He did not borrow “best practices” from the business leaders of his day. Rather, his ministry vision was decidedly, staunchly biblical and theological in nature—and it was a ministry vision we ought to adopt more than a century later.
In Spurgeon the Pastor, Geoff Chang, director of the Spurgeon Library at Midwestern Seminary, shows how Spurgeon models a theological vision of ministry in preaching, baptism and the Lord’s supper, meaningful church membership, biblical church leadership, leadership development, and more.
Don’t get caught up in worldly methods to pursue ministry growth. Follow the example of the Prince of Preachers, and entrust your ministry to the sovereignty of the Prince of Peace.
Buy Spurgeon the Pastor through B&H Publishing, Amazon, or Christianbook.com.
The Best Books on Christian Living
Faith in the Wilderness: Words of Exhortation from the Chinese Church, edited by Hannah Nation and Simon Liu
Book description from the publisher:
“If we want revival in our communities, then let us learn from those being revived.” For many Western Christians, the experience of suffering and persecution is remote. For Chinese Christians, on the other hand, persecution is a regular aspect of the Christian life. If a Christian from the West was transported to a Chinese house church, the topic of suffering would be ever-present in preaching and conversation. With decades of persecution under government oppression and a rich theology of suffering, the Chinese house church movement has much to contribute theologically to the global church.
In Faith in the Wilderness, editors Hannah Nation and Simon Liu pull together the insights of the Chinese church for the West. These sermonic letters from Chinese Christians pull back the curtain on the pastoral heart and the hope behind the house church’s remarkable faithfulness, awakening readers to the reality of the gospel―the ground of our hope―in the midst of darkness. Readers will be convicted, encouraged, and edified by the testimony of these Chinese Christians.
Read SOLA Network’s Review of Faith in the Wilderness
Buy Faith in the Wilderness through Lexham Press, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.
Analog Christian: Cultivating Contentment, Resilience, and Wisdom in the Digital Age by Jay Y. Kim
Book description from the publisher:
The digital age is in the business of commodifying our attention. The technologies of our day are determined to keep us scrolling and swiping at all costs, plugged into a feedback loop of impatience, comparison, outrage, and contempt. Blind to the dangers, we enjoy its temporary pleasures, unaware of the damage to our souls.
Jay Kim’s Analog Church explores the ways the digital age and its values affect the life of the church. In Analog Christian, he asks the same question of Christian discipleship. As the digital age inclines us to discontentment, fragility, and foolishness, how are followers of Jesus to respond? What is the theological basis for living in creative resistance to the forces of our day? How can Christians cultivate the contentment, resilience, and wisdom to not only survive but to thrive as we navigate the specific challenges of our age?
Read SOLA Network’s review of Analog Christian.
Watch SOLA Network’s interview with Jay Kim.
Buy Analog Church through Intervarsity Press, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.
Shame: Being Known and Loved by Esther Liu
Book description from the publisher:
Many of us experience shame on a regular basis. We compare ourselves to others and feel deficient. We look at our pasts and hope no one will find out what we’ve done―or what was done to us. We doubt and isolate ourselves in light of previous rejection or failure. Our shame is unpleasant, even paralyzing. But there is hope for shame-filled souls! Our Savior willingly sacrificed everything―even died―so that shame would not have the final say in your life. Now he empowers you to change. Writing both as a biblical counselor and fellow struggler, Esther Liu takes us on a thirty-one day journey to discover lasting comfort. Explore the depths of God’s grace for you; respond to Christ’s invitation to rest; and use practical action points, reflection questions, and devotional insights to reshape your instinctive responses to God, others, and yourself.
Read SOLA Network’s review of Shame: Being Known and Loved.
Buy Shame through CCEF, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.
Emmanuel: An Invitation to Prepare Him Room at Christmas and Always by Ruth Chou Simons
Book description from the publisher:
If there’s one name for Jesus that captures the whole heart of God, it is Emmanuel—God with us. No other name similarly expresses the fullness of God’s eternal desire for His image-bearers. He’s always wanted us to be with Him.
From the bestselling author and artist behind GraceLaced and Beholding and Becoming comes this gorgeously illustrated Advent exploration of what it means to intimately experience God’s presence in our daily lives. Ruth Chou Simons welcomes you and your family to partake in a season of surrender as you discover the true miracle behind Christmas: that while we journey to grow in our relationships with Jesus, He has already come so He can be with us forever.
Christmas Day is not the end of our celebrations, but the beginning! Emmanuel is an invitation to rejoice in the everlasting fellowship and hope God extended to us on the day of His Son’s birth, guiding us to realize that having God with us all year long is Christmas’s most incredible gift.
Buy Emmanuel through Harvest House Publishers, Amazon, or Christianbook.com.
Check out SOLA Network’s interview with Ruth Chou Simons
The Best Children’s Book
Taste and See: All about God’s Goodness, written by Irene Sun and illustrated by Hannah Y. Lu
Book description from the publisher:
Children love food, and this beautiful book will help them see God’s goodness and love in the food he provides for his children all through the Bible.
From fruit trees in the garden, manna in the wilderness, and bread and fish by the sea of Galilee, to the final marriage supper of the Lamb, children will learn to “taste and see that the Lord is good.”
In Taste and See, author Irene Sun and illustrator Hannah Y. Lu provide a bird’s eye view of the Bible using the idea of hunger and feasting to tell the story of redemption in a narrative poem set to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Children ages 4-7 will discover that everything their hearts hunger for can be found in Jesus—the one whose broken body and shed blood is made visible in the bread and wine we eat together to celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection. Each meal we share until Jesus comes is a time to remember God’s love for all his children.
The resource page at the end of Taste and See will equip parents to go deeper into these truths with their children.
Buy Taste and See through New Growth Press, Amazon, or Christianbook.com.