Let’s start out by telling our readers a little about you. (Current ministry context, family, joys in life, etc.)
I’m a stay at home wife and mom to Shane and Brooke (one-year-old). I spend my free time discipling younger women one on one and being involved with athletes and international students at a local university. I also co-lead a Bible study on Hebrews with some women at my church. At home, I also work as an intern for The Gospel Coalition and write when the Lord teaches me something new for a variety of publications as well as my personal blog (www.jennifercbrogdon.com). My joys in life are running, being outside, traveling, reading, and any type of fellowship with my church body.
What are you reading right now?
I am currently reading John Piper’s Reading the Bible Supernaturally, Steven King’s On Writing, Tim Challies’ Do More Better, and N.D. Wilson’s Death by Living.
What are some books you regularly re-read and why?
I have read Radical by David Platt and Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper more times than I can count. Both books transformed my thinking towards the mission when I was in college. Today they help renew my mind and motivate my soul on how to live “on mission” and radically here while keeping the desire to later move among an unreached people group and labor there.
I also re-read What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert often as this is a big part of how I disciple others.
What biographies or autobiographies have you read recently?
Zack Eswine’s Spurgeon’s Sorrows and Noel Piper’s Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God.
Speaking of biographies and such, is there any particular one that has influenced you a great deal in your faith?
I would say Elisabeth Eliot’s book In the Shadow of the Almighty has influenced me the most. It’s encouraged me not to fear dying in the hands of those I long for God to save. It’s also encouraged me to be like Elisabeth who remained steadfast in laboring for the very people who killed her husband and the others. God yielded much fruit from those terrible deaths and from her persistence, so it was worth it—for His glory!
If you were sitting down with a fellow believer and they asked for your top five book recommendations on Christian living, what would they be?
If these are in the category of Christian Living:
- Knowing God by J.I. Packer.
- Desiring God by John Piper.
- The Attributes of God by A.W. Tozer.
- Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin.
- Radical by David Platt.
What books have molded how you serve and lead others in the gospel?
Every single one of Gloria Furman’s books have helped me see how to raise disciples to the glory of God whether they’re my biological children or spiritual children. What is the Gospel? by Gilbert helps me clarify the gospel to others as well as teach others how to share the gospel themselves.
Finally, let’s conclude with this question. What are you learning about life and daily following Jesus?
I am learning to be faithful in everyday moments and with whatever influence I have. That may be with my daughter or a young girl one on one. It may be with a small group of women in Bible study. It may also be with however many people resonate with any articles I write. Ultimately, Jesus doesn’t care more about the ones who have the largest influence or the most involved presence in as many ministries as possible. He desires our faith and obedience in what He’s given us now.
Matthew D. Adams serves as Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, PCA in Dillon, SC. He graduated from Erskine Theological Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina with a Masters of Divinity. He lives in a small town by the name of Hamer, SC and is married to Beth.
