Matt Redman is one of the most popular Christian songwriters working in the UK today. His work is performed and sung by congregations all over the world and includes standards such as '10,000 Reasons', 'Blessed Be Your Name', 'The Heart Of Worship' and 'You Never Let Go'.
Born in 1974, Redman has been a full-time worship leader since he was 20 and is based in Brighton.
He is also the author of several books, including 10,000 Reasons, The Unquenchable Worshipper, Facedown, Mirrorball, Blessed Be Your Name (co-authored with his wife Beth) and Indescribable (co-authored with Louie Giglio).
But what are the books that feed his soul and sustain his own spirituality?
Redman was interviewed for the Books For Life website – and for someone at the cutting edge of modern worship music, his choices were surprisingly traditional.
Redman chooses three books to speak about. His first is My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers (1874-1917). A holiness preacher who founded a Bible college and died of appendicitis while serving as a YMCA chaplain in Cairo – he had resisted going to hospital on the grounds that beds would be needed by wounded men – his book of daily devotions was compiled by his widow and has never been out of print. Redman's favourite quote from that book is: "Complete weakness and dependence will always be the occasion for the Spirit of God to manifest his power." He says: "I just think that's a fantastic thought and a fantastic way to approach life."
He also chooses The Treasury of David, by CH Spurgeon (1834-1892), a three-volume study of the Psalms. Spurgeon was the greatest evangelical figure of his generation, a preacher, author and church planter who founded a college and an orphanage whose work continues today. Redman says of him: "He writes with a poetry and a passion and I really connect with some of the thoughts he writes." And he says, "For me, it's amazing that there's a song book in the middle of the Bible. It would have been the hymn book of Jesus as he walked the earth, these 150 songs, so I love it that Spurgeon's diving into each and every one of them, upacking them."
While his first two are older authors, the third is the US Calvinist theologian John Piper, founder of DesiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis. Piper's book The Dangerous Duty of Delight is drawn from his longer book Desiring God. Redman says: "His whole thing is about, 'God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him,' and the fact that praising God and pursuing joy aren't two separate acts."
The Books for Life initiative is aimed at promoting good Christian books. Founder Krish Kandiah says: "As a church we are losing the habit of spiritual reading, leaders are struggling to recommend books to their congregations, and Christians simply aren't being encouraged to read."
It features interviews each month with significant Christian leaders about books that mean something to them.
