It’s hard to believe that we are at mid-year already. As I have in the past, I wanted to share with you my favorites from the first half of 2018 in a variety of categories. Except for books, these are all items that were released or took place in 2018. For books, I include my favorite books that I’ve read thus far during 2018. Enjoy!  Please let me know what you think of my list, and also share some of your favorites.

Movies

Best: Tie ~ Black Panther and Paddington 2

Other movies I’ve enjoyed, in no particular order, were:

• Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
• Incredibles 2
• Peter Rabbit
• Calvinist
• The Post
• I Can Only Imagine
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Isle of Dogs
• Ready Player One
• Ant-Man and The Wasp

Worst:  Below are the worst, or at least the most disappointing, films I’ve seen, in no particular order:

• Hostiles
• Phantom Thread
• The 15:17 to Paris
• God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness
• First Reformed

Music

Best: Resurrection Letters: Prologue/Resurrection Letters Vol. 1 – Andrew Peterson
  
Other music I’ve enjoyed, in no particular order, were:

• You’re Driving Me Crazy – Van Morrison and Joey DeFrancesco
• Let the Trap Say Amen – Lecrae and Zaytoven
• Surrounded – Michael W. Smith
• Into the Night – Social Club Misfits
• One More Song – Ashley Cleveland

Top Songs

Best: Is He Worthy? – Andrew Peterson

Other songs I’ve enjoyed, in no particular order, have been:

• Take Me to the Water/Cool Down by the Banks of Jordan – Ashley Cleveland
• I Can’t Lose – Lecrae and Zaytoven
• Everyday I Have the Blues – Van Morrison and Joey DeFrancesco
• The Holy Grail – John Fogerty
• Bridges Burn by NEEDTOBREATHE
• Better Than I Used to Be by Mat Kearney
• Don’t Know by Paul McCartney

Books

Best: The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row – Anthony Ray Hinton

Other books I’ve enjoyed, in no particular order, were:

• Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 – John Maxwell
• Servant Leadership in Action – Edited by Ken Blanchard
• The Gospel According to God – John MacArthur
• The Gospel Comes with a House Key – Rosaria Butterfield
• How to be a Perfect Christian – Babylon Bee
• How to Get Unstuck – Matt Perman
• Take Heart: Christian Courage in the Age of Unbelief – Matt Chandler
• Immanuel Labor: God’s Presence in Our Profession: A Biblical, Theological, and Practical Approach to the Doctrine of Work – Russell E. Gehrlein
• The Gospel at Work: How the Gospel Gives New Purpose and Meaning to Our Jobs(Updated and Expanded Edition) – Greg Gilbert and Sebastian Traeger
• Paul Simon: The Life – Robert Hilburn
• Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music? Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock – Gregory Alan Thornbury
• Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization – John Wooden and Steve Jamison

Blogs

Best: Tim Challies’ Ala Carte. This is required reading for me each Monday through Saturday. Challies includes helpful Kindle deals, links to a good variety of helpful articles and a quote.  Check out Tim’s website here.

Podcasts

Best: The Briefing – Albert Mohler. Each weekend morning, Albert Mohler hosts a podcast providing worldview analysis about the leading news headlines and cultural conversations. This is required listening for me. Check out Dr. Mohler’s website here.

Honorable mention goes to the third season of Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent podcast Revisionist History. On each episode, Gladwell goes back and reinterprets something from the past: an event, a person, an idea. Something overlooked. Something misunderstood.

Television

Best: Victoria

• The Resident
• This is Us
• The Profit
• The Blacklist
• The Crown

Concerts

Best: U2 – Experience and Innocence Tour in St. Louis

Honorable Mention: John Hiatt and the Goners, featuring Sonny Landreth. Slow Turning 30^th Anniversary Reunion Tour in Bloomington, Illinois

New Resources

Best: Messages from the 2018 Ligonier National Conference which had the theme “Awakening”.

These are my mid-year favorites in a variety of categories. How about you? What were some of your favorites?