Who Should Read Powlison and Why

This morning I finished reading David Powlison's Speaking Truth in Love. This is the third book I've read by Powlison (Seeing with New Eyes and Power Encounters were the first two). My appreciation for his biblical wisdom increases with each book.

Should you read Powlison's books?

If you are:

• a pastor or elder


• a Christian (or non-Christian, for that matter!) counselor


• a small group leader or Sunday School teacher


• someone regular involved in personal one-on-one, or one-on-two-or-three, ministry


• you find yourself regularly in meaningful conversations with friends and family members about life


• or just want to clean the barnacles of secular psychology off your brain and start thinking in biblically-faithful categories instead

then you probably should.

Why should you read Powlison's books?

1. He sees life through a Scripture-informed, God-saturated, Christ-cherishing, gospel-proclaiming, hope-giving, redemption-bringing lens. He will help you do the same.

2. He writes with verve. I like his style a lot. His freshness makes him very easy and enjoyable to read.

3. He makes God-to-life connections in powerful ways. I frequently emerge from time with Powlison having experienced "aha" moments. I see the truth of Christ mapping onto real life in ways I had not seen it before.

4. The chapters (in Seeing with New Eyes and Speaking Truth in Love) are mostly stand-alone chapters, having originally appeared as articles and editorials in The Journal of Biblical Counseling. This makes these two books easy to dip into and skip around and read what interests you. There are loose connections, of course, because the chapters all deal with some aspects of Chrisitan soul-care. Thematically Seeing with New Eyes is more about viewing life with the gaze of God, while Speaking Truth in Love is about interpersonal ministry in the community of Christ.

So, maybe you'll be persuaded to purchase and start reading. Start with Seeing with New Eyes. I think you'll be glad you did.