Here are 100 books that Mission Drift fans have personally recommended if you like Mission Drift. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life

Gary Harpst Author Of Built to Beat Chaos: Biblical Wisdom for Leading Yourself and Others

From my list on applying Christian principles to business and leadership.

Why am I passionate about this?

Following several years of working for the Ohio State University and Marathon Oil, I co-founded and became CEO of Solomon Software, originally named TLB, Inc. (The Lord’s Business) headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. We grew to more than 400 employees and $60 million in revenue, servicing over 40,000 clients worldwide, and then sold our company to Great Plains Software and that combined business was sold to Microsoft six months later. I later established Solomon Cloud Solutions, a technology consulting service firm for Microsoft Independent Software Vendors and Microsoft Business Solutions Channel Partners. Now, I assist businesses and organizations with implementing leadership development systems that will help them grow with a company called LeadFirst.ai.

Gary's book list on applying Christian principles to business and leadership

Gary Harpst Why Gary loves this book

Os Guiness is my favorite author when it comes to thinking about the call of God and our most fundamental purpose in life.

He tears down the false dichotomy of the sacred versus the secular with regard to living in fullness. Whether baking bread, plowing the soil, or preaching a sermon, a life lived in and for Christ is holy.

We are all on a lifelong adventure to grow in the knowledge and relationship with our Creator. With this perspective, we can live through the difficult and the good times with equal joy.

By Os Guinness ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Call as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Call continues to stand as a classic, reflective work on life's purpose. Best-selling author Os Guinness goes beyond our surface understanding of God's call and addresses the fact that God has a specific calling for our individual lives.

Why am I here? What is God's call in my life? How do I fit God's call with my own individuality? How should God's calling affect my career, my plans for the future, my concepts of success? Guinness now helps the reader discover answers to these questions, and more, through a corresponding workbook - perfect for individual or group study.

According…


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of The Transformation Factor: Leading Your Company for Good, for God, and for Growth

Gary Harpst Author Of Built to Beat Chaos: Biblical Wisdom for Leading Yourself and Others

From my list on applying Christian principles to business and leadership.

Why am I passionate about this?

Following several years of working for the Ohio State University and Marathon Oil, I co-founded and became CEO of Solomon Software, originally named TLB, Inc. (The Lord’s Business) headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. We grew to more than 400 employees and $60 million in revenue, servicing over 40,000 clients worldwide, and then sold our company to Great Plains Software and that combined business was sold to Microsoft six months later. I later established Solomon Cloud Solutions, a technology consulting service firm for Microsoft Independent Software Vendors and Microsoft Business Solutions Channel Partners. Now, I assist businesses and organizations with implementing leadership development systems that will help them grow with a company called LeadFirst.ai.

Gary's book list on applying Christian principles to business and leadership

Gary Harpst Why Gary loves this book

This book shows us an example of a generational change of leadership and details a spiritual epiphany which leads to the transformation of an organization, now employing over 17,000 people.

And it all started with a young CEO who sensed that he did not have the same kind of attention and accountability to his purpose in Jesus Christ as he did to his stockholders from a return-on-investment point of view. 

I love how this story illustrates the power we have to impact the lives of people around us when we lead our businesses in a way that aligns with God’s purposes.

By J Frank Harrison III ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Transformation Factor as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Culture Is Everything. A good leader builds and establishes a company culture people want to be a part of. A transformational leader elevates that, cultivating a culture in which everyone-from the top down-is empowered to use their talents to live and work at their best. As the chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Consolidated, the largest Coca-Cola bottler in the United States, J. Frank Harrison III knows firsthand the importance of not only prioritizing culture but also living out and modeling the values that drive it. He believes every person in an organization matters and how they are led matters just…


Book cover of Faith Driven Entrepreneur: What It Takes to Step Into Your Purpose and Pursue Your God-Given Call to Create

Lowell W Busenitz Author Of Soul Work: Finding God in Your Entrepreneurial Pursuits

From my list on growing your faith at work.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have long been passionate about helping people connect with God through their work. After graduating from college, I worked in full-time minister for six years and then became an entrepreneur. Was I dropping off a spiritual cliff by leaving full-time ministry? I later pursued my PhD and became a professor. At the University of Oklahoma, I became a top researcher and co-founded the Center for Entrepreneurship. The impact of work on my faith has long been an important issue for me. I ultimately gained valuable insights from God that enhanced my spiritual journey. In my book, I explain the profound significance of work for knowing God. 

Lowell's book list on growing your faith at work

Lowell W Busenitz Why Lowell loves this book

I love participating in the creative process with my work. This book helped me understand that the creative process enables me to bring greater honor and glory to my God. It is helping me to better understand how entrepreneurship provides a great opportunity to commune with God and to know him better through my work.

This book helped me discover the potential God wants to unleash within me through my creative endeavors and can help others flourish. The creative process helps us see something bigger than anything any of us could ever make, that is, to engage with God, who meets all of our needs. 

By Henry Kaestner , J. D. Greear , Chip Ingram

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Faith Driven Entrepreneur as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“I’m excited about Faith Driven Entrepreneur. Anyone who is following the example of their creator God can find echoes of their work in this book.” ―Lecrae

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. But it doesn’t need to be. God has a purpose and a plan for all those entrepreneurial dreams and creative gifts he gave you.

The work you do today―the company you’ve built, the employees you work with, the customers you serve, the shareholders you report to, all of it―serves as an active part of what God wants to accomplish on earth.

You are not alone in this journey.…


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Book cover of Trusting Her Duke

Trusting Her Duke by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.

Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…

Book cover of Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently

Gary Harpst Author Of Built to Beat Chaos: Biblical Wisdom for Leading Yourself and Others

From my list on applying Christian principles to business and leadership.

Why am I passionate about this?

Following several years of working for the Ohio State University and Marathon Oil, I co-founded and became CEO of Solomon Software, originally named TLB, Inc. (The Lord’s Business) headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. We grew to more than 400 employees and $60 million in revenue, servicing over 40,000 clients worldwide, and then sold our company to Great Plains Software and that combined business was sold to Microsoft six months later. I later established Solomon Cloud Solutions, a technology consulting service firm for Microsoft Independent Software Vendors and Microsoft Business Solutions Channel Partners. Now, I assist businesses and organizations with implementing leadership development systems that will help them grow with a company called LeadFirst.ai.

Gary's book list on applying Christian principles to business and leadership

Gary Harpst Why Gary loves this book

This book unveils some of the mysteries of how our brains are designed and function.

Although not written from a biblical perspective, it unveils some of the reasons for the dual nature described in scripture—why we often hear two voices in our head and how we decide which one to follow. It also points out the challenges of group wisdom and convention versus thinking independently, thus avoiding the deception that creeps into group thinking.

As a Christian, I found this book unintentionally providing insight into biblical principles for decision-making and leadership. God is the owner and source of all truth, and we can see Him in everything.

By Gregory Berns ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Iconoclast as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

No organization can survive without iconoclasts innovators who single-handedly upturn conventional wisdom and manage to achieve what so many others deem impossible. Though indispensable, true iconoclasts are few and far between. In Iconoclast, neuroscientist Gregory Berns explains why. He explores the constraints the human brain places on innovative thinking, including fear of failure, the urge to conform, and the tendency to interpret sensory information in familiar ways.


Book cover of Some Wildflower in My Heart

Susan Grant Author Of The Bottle House

From my list on authentically illustrating genuine Christian faith.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a Bible college graduate whose faith has always been a practical matter. Because I learned to find the “so what” of the Bible, when I became a teacher of the Bible in the public schools of Rowan County, North Carolina, my elective courses had waiting lists for students to get in to. As I now teach in Maine, I found I could continue to share a practical Christian faith through my writing. The books I have listed here do the very thing that I seek in my own writing.

Susan's book list on authentically illustrating genuine Christian faith

Susan Grant Why Susan loves this book

Some Wildflower in My Heart reminded me that people are the way they are for a reason. Margaret, the woman who seems to have a heart of stone, had a child and young adulthood of trauma.

As I followed Margaret through the story, I found that looking deeper into a person can reveal treasures I did not know existed. Margaret lived through tragic events and she rejects God because she feels he let her down. 

I understood her anger with God and when her heart softens, because of a relationship she forms with an authentic Christian coworker, I see it is a genuine realization and not some unbelievable event an author is trying to force on me. 

By Jamie Langston Turner ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Some Wildflower in My Heart as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Margaret Tuttle's story is one of love unsought, for she had been perfectly content with the well-ordered and conveniently predictable life she had arranged for herself.But something dark lurks beneath the surface of her placid and uncluttered being, something dusty with neglect, yet painful to the touch. Birdie Freeman is everything Margaret is not: homely, humble, and generous. It is Birdie who manages, through nothing but acts of love, to dredge up Margaret's memories of things better left buried. Then Margaret discovers that Birdie harbors secrets of her own.


Book cover of The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion

Jeffrey Hantover Author Of The Three Deaths of Giovanni Fumiani

From my list on what to read when the museum is closed.

Why am I passionate about this?

For four decades, I have written about art for publications in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. I have interviewed, among other artists, Frank Stella, Mary Ellen Mark, Dale Chihuly, Deng Lin (the daughter of Deng Xiaoping), the most celebrated Vietnamese contemporary painters, and the leading Japanese ceramicists. My ideal vacation is to wander the cobblestone streets of Italy, walking into a church to see the art of Caravaggio, Raphael, and Bernini. On a trip to Venice, I saw the immense illusionist ceiling painting by Giovanni Fumiani in the church of San Pantalon. Looking up at angels swirling in heaven, the idea for my second novel was born. 

Jeffrey's book list on what to read when the museum is closed

Jeffrey Hantover Why Jeffrey loves this book

I have never been able to look at Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and child the same after reading this brilliant and controversial book. I promise your eyes will be opened as well. These paintings were not simple religious decoration. Christ’s genitalia, exposed or covered, was a visible element in theological arguments in the Renaissance about the humanity of Christ. In our secular world, Steinberg argues, we have lost sight of the sexual component of these images. Steinberg’s breadth of learning is astounding, and the extensive footnotes are as stimulating as the text.  

By Leo Steinberg ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Steinberg argues in this work that the artists regarded the deliberate exposure of Christ's genitalia as an affirmation of kinship with the human condition. Christ's lifelong virginity, understood as potency under check, and the first offer of blood in the circumcision, both required acknowledgment of the genital organ. More than exercises in realism, these unabashed images underscore the crucial theological import of the Incarnation.


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Book cover of The Duke's Christmas Redemption

The Duke's Christmas Redemption by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.

Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…

Book cover of A Matter of Days: Resolving a Creation Controversy

J. Suthern Hicks Author Of Where the Garden Begins

From my list on books that explore Christianity in creative and engaging ways.

Why am I passionate about this?

After discovering Jesus at the age of fourteen, I began reading the King James Version of the Bible. This early modern English version was difficult to understand at first, but it soon became my poetic introduction to a faith that would reveal just how big and wonderful our Creator is. I eventually realized how a correct interpretation of science agreed with a correct interpretation of the Bible. That led me to study apologetics and such topics as how the universe began. As a creative person at heart, having been an actor, songwriter, playwright, and novelist, I am realizing that being made in the image of God means that the possibilities for creativity never end.

J.'s book list on books that explore Christianity in creative and engaging ways

J. Suthern Hicks Why J. loves this book

I love that the subject of this book is about beginnings—THE beginning, in fact. As someone who became a believer at the age of fourteen, I felt secure in my understanding of the Bible and had little need or desire to be challenged on my understanding of controversial Biblical topics.

This is the book that changed all that for me. It introduced me to apologetics. I admire the gentle and noncombative way the astrophysicist author discusses how Genesis can literally describe an earth that is 4.5 billion years old. It was a fascinating exploration of Biblical analysis, Hebrew, and scientific study. I became so much more confident in my understanding of Genesis after reading this book.

By Hugh Ross ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Matter of Days as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An old-earth view takes on the challenges of young-earth proponents through a study of history, Scripture, and nature-and a testable creation model.


Book cover of The Resurrection of the Son of God

Rodney Holder Author Of Ramified Natural Theology in Science and Religion: Moving Forward from Natural Theology

From my list on my Christian faith confirmed through science.

Why am I passionate about this?

I believe that the most important questions one can possibly ask are, ‘Is there a God?’ and ‘Is Jesus God in human flesh?’ Since becoming a Christian at University in Cambridge the answers I have found to these questions have been the bedrock of my life. They have been confirmed by experience and I have wanted to share them. My academic work has been devoted to them. I am an astrophysicist as well as a priest and find, contrary to popular conceptions, that these vocations fit wonderfully neatly together. I am persuaded that there is a wealth of evidence for the truth of Christian beliefs, including from science itself.

Rodney's book list on my Christian faith confirmed through science

Rodney Holder Why Rodney loves this book

Tom Wright is the leading New Testament scholar of today. This powerful and persuasive magnum opus brings Wright’s skills as the finest historian of the period to bear on his subject matter. He sets Jesus’ resurrection well and truly in its historical context. The idea of a general resurrection at the end of time may have been around but not the resurrection within time of a single individual. Yet all the evidence leads inexorably to the conclusion that this is precisely what happened. This was not a belief that emerged over time and then found its way into the gospels but the very foundation of Christian preaching and writing from the beginning and the basis of the existence and spread of the church from its earliest days.

By N. T. Wright ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Resurrection of the Son of God as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book, third in Wright's series Christian Origins and the Question of God, sketches a map of ancient beliefs about life after death, in both the Greco-Roman and Jewish worlds. It then highlights the fact that the early Christians' belief about the afterlife belonged firmly on the Jewish spectrum, while introducing several new mutations and sharper definitions. This, together with other features of early Christianity, forces the historian to read the Easter narratives in the gospels, not simply as late rationalizations of early Christian spirituality, but as accounts of two actual events: the empty tomb of Jesus and his "appearances."


Book cover of Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense

Molly Worthen Author Of Spellbound

From my list on helping a secular person understand the weirdest parts of religion.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in a secular home, but when I got to college, it dawned on me that religion is an incredibly important framework for understanding the world. So I started to take classes and read books about religion—and I never stopped. After spending my whole adult life sidling up alongside religion but never quite getting it at a personal level, I accidentally let myself get evangelized three years ago, became a Christian, and now attend a Baptist megachurch. I guess I am like a scientist who fell into my own experiment. I still find religious beliefs and practices completely bizarre, even though I’m now a believer myself!

Molly's book list on helping a secular person understand the weirdest parts of religion

Molly Worthen Why Molly loves this book

He is so hilariously good at swearing!

That’s a major reason I love this book: Francis Spufford raises profanity to a high art, and he does it in a book that is, ostensibly, about Jesus.

A Christian friend recommended this one to me, and I bought it and let it sit on the shelf for a long time before I finally picked it up. Then I read it in maybe three sittings, because it’s silly and profound at the same time. (Also it’s short and carries you along—this is a good one to stick in your bag and read a couple pages at a time whenever you are at a bus stop.)

Spufford is mainly a novelist, and his aim here is not to convince you that Christianity’s fact claims are true. (Although he does think it’s all true.) Instead, he’s explaining the way the Christian picture of God and…

By Francis Spufford ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Unapologetic as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Unapologetic" is a brief, witty, personal, sharp-tongued defence of Christian belief, taking on Dawkins' "The God Delusion" and Christopher Hitchens' "God is Not Great". But it isn't an argument that Christianity is true - because how could anyone know that (or indeed its opposite)? It's an argument that Christianity is recognisable, drawing on the deep and deeply ordinary vocabulary of human feeling, satisfying those who believe in it by offering a ruthlessly realistic account of the bits of our lives advertising agencies prefer to ignore. It's a book for believers who are fed up with being patronised, for non-believers curious…


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Book cover of Old Man Country

Old Man Country by Thomas R. Cole,

This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.

In these and other intimate conversations, the book…

Book cover of Ravished by the Spirit: Religious Revivals, Baptists, and Henry Alline

Mark A. Noll Author Of A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada

From my list on the history of Christianity in Canada.

Why am I passionate about this?

Instead of experiencing a mid-life academic crisis, I discovered Canada. Through George Rawlyk, a senior historian at Queen’s University in Ontario, and then through many fruitful contacts with older and younger Canadians as well as frequent visits north of the border, I became increasingly intrigued by comparisons with U.S. history. Most of my specialized scholarship has treated American developments, but I have been able to explain those matters more perceptively by keeping Canada’s alternative history in mind. The chance to introduce undergraduates at the University of Notre Dame to Canadian history provided a regular stimulus to think about a common subject (Christianity) taking somewhat different shapes in the two nations.

Mark's book list on the history of Christianity in Canada

Mark A. Noll Why Mark loves this book

In his years as a historian at Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario) Rawlyk inspired a wealth of solid writing on Canada’s religious history, while also inaugurating an ambitious series in religious history for the McGill-Queen’s University press that continues to this day. Rawlyk’s own research detailed the religious history of the Maritime Provinces, especially the dramatic, long-term impact of radical Christian revivals in the period of the American Revolution that were spearheaded by Henry Alline. A special feature of this book is the shrewd assessment of how Canada’s early religious history differed from parallel developments in the United States.

By George A. Rawlyk ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ravished by the Spirit as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Rawlyk sees the Baptists of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as reaching their zenith during the latter half of the nineteenth century. He makes some controversial comments on the differences between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Baptists of both the present and past century. Ravished by the Spirit does not deal merely with a distnt historical past but raises some fundamental and disconcerting questions about the vulnerability of the Baptist denomination in contemporary Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.


Book cover of The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life
Book cover of The Transformation Factor: Leading Your Company for Good, for God, and for Growth
Book cover of Faith Driven Entrepreneur: What It Takes to Step Into Your Purpose and Pursue Your God-Given Call to Create

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