John Stott used to have this reading plan: one hour a day, one three hour period a week, one day a month and one week a year. I'm not sure I can keep up with that much structured reading (though I do read a lot). However, once a year I try to follow the "one week a year" pattern. Last week was my week and it was….mostly….reading. It didn't quite work out (a preaching group, a ministers gathering and an evening lecture interrupted the flow), but it was pretty good.

We think this is such a good idea that we give the Cornhill students a reading week too. This year, if you're interested, they will be reading either Pilgrim's Progress or Idols by Julian Hardyman (first years) or What is the mission of the church? by DeYoung and Gilbert (second years).

I tried to choose a balance of books, alongside spending some time in 2 Corinthians and Colossians for my Bible study. Here were my choices. I'll blog on some of them over the next few days, if you're interested:

• For personal encouragement I read Steve Wilmshurt's Mark in the Welwyn Commentary series. Truth is, I was given this to review, but it turned out to be a very warm pastoral and spiritually helpful book for my own walk with Christ. And good to get back into Mark's gospel again.
• For intellectual stretch (not too hard with me) I read James Sire's Why Good Arguments Often Fail. I've read this before, but wanted to come back to it again as I know it had some helpful things about preaching.
• For role related challenge, I picked up Leaders Who Last by Dave Kraft. More of this shortly,
• For preaching (that is after all my job, to help others preach) I read a manuscript of Teaching 1 Timothy by Angus Macleay, one of our 2012 books.
• And for an historical slant, I read the new biography of Bonhoeffer by Eric Mataxas. Again, watch out for a post.

As I said, more on some of these shortly. But let me commend a reading week. It's something well worth pursuing. Oh, and I also read some kids books with the….kids. Nice.