Christian Book Endorsement Awards 2025

Straight from Twitter to your Substack inboxes

It's time to celebrate the ONLY awards ceremony devoted to Christian book endorsements.

This year's awards are for books published in 2024.

If you’re new to the award, 2 important metrics:

TOTAL ENDORSEMENTS
Last year's winner was the multiauthor "Reading the Psalms Theologically" (Lexham), with 39 endorsements

ENDORSEMENT-TO-PAGE RATIO
2024's winner was Christine Chappell's "Midnight Mercies" (P&R), with 1 endorsement for every 4.74 pages

And one important preliminary statement from the Awards Committee:

"These awards are intended as a light-hearted commentary on the phenomenon of endorsements. It is not a commentary on the merits or demerits of any specific book or author."

So, grab a cup of tea and four biscuits, and keep reading to find out all 20 winners.

🏆 MOST ENDORSED BOOK OF 2024

Many congratulations to Rich Robinson, who has unlocked endorsement potential this year with his book "All Change" (100 Movements Publishing).

Appropriately for the year where Taylor Swift turns 36, this has 36 endorsements (one per 7.5 pages).

🏆 MOST IMPRESSIVE ENDORSEMENT-TO-PAGES RATIO

Will Dobbie's "A Time to Mourn" (Christian Focus) is just 70 pages, but has 16 endorsements, one for every 4.38 pages.

At least 1 endorser is a former professional footballer (possibly 2: not sure if Rico Tice ever went professional)

🏆 MOST ENDORSED BOOK BY A FEMALE AUTHOR

In an endorsement world dominated by male authors and endorsers, this year we celebrate the commitment of Bunni Pounds.

Her book "Jesus and Politics" (FrontLine) has an award-winning 31 endorsements (one per 6.97 pages).

🏆 LONGEST ENDORSEMENT

Congratulations to Tony Reinke, who secured a 383-word endorsement from Sinclair Ferguson for "Ask Pastor John" (Crossway).

That's 9 words more than the entirety of the classic 1994 children's book "Guess How Much I Love You" (which has no endorsements).

🏆 SHORTEST ENDORSEMENT

This was a fiercely contested category this year, but the final award goes to Lauren Windle, whose book "Notes on Feminism" (SPCK) contains a pithy 4-word endorsement from someone called Barney:

"Funny for a girl"

🏆 MOST ENDORSEMENTS IN A REALLY LONG BOOK

A new award for this year, celebrating really long endorsement lists in really long books.

The inaugural winners are Robert M. Bowman and Ed Komoszweski, whose 896-page "The Incarnate Christ and His Critics" (Kregel) has 29 endorsements.

🏆MOST ENDORSED BOOK PUBLISHED IN MINNEAPOLIS

The streets of Grand Rapids, MI, will be filled with celebrations tonight. But some books are published elsewhere, e.g. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda's "Building a Moral Economy" (Fortress Press), which has 23 endorsements (one per 12.96 pages)

🏆MOST ENDORSED COMMENTARY

According to ancient tradition, biblical commentaries are often published without endorsements, but there are some notable exceptions.

This year's winner is Peter Ho, whose "Habakkuk and Zephaniah" (Langham) has 23 endorsements (1 per 9.13 pages).

🏆 MOST ENDORSED COMMENTARY IN A SERIES THAT HASN'T PREVIOUSLY PRINTED ENDORSEMENTS INSIDE

L Michael Morales blazed a trail with his Apollos OT Commentary on Numbers this year, the first in the series to have a number of endorsements inside (the number being 4).

🏆 MOST NYT BESTSELLING AUTHORS IN AN ENDORSEMENT LIST

New York Times bestselling authors are good at writing, and this means they're good at writing endorsements.

For his book "Think Ahead" (Zondervan), Craig Groeschel thought ahead and enlisted 15 of them (and 8 others)

🏆 MOST AUSTRALIANS IN AN ENDORSEMENT LIST

Many authors overlook Australia when searching for endorsers, despite its rich endorsement history. But Andrew Heard's book "Growth and Change" (Matthias Media) has 12 Australian endorsements (1 Aussie per 18.5 pages)

Good on ya, mate

🏆 MOST EXORCISTS IN AN ENDORSEMENT LIST

Eschewing Australia, Fr Carlos Martins decided to look elsewhere to get endorsements for his book, "The Exorcist Files" (FaithWords). This has 20 total endorsements (1 per 12.95 pages), 11 of which are from diocesan exorcists

🏆 MOST ENDORSEMENTS FROM IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBERS

Where better to look for endorsements than your own family? Mondo De La Vega's "My Crazy Life" (Charisma House) has 8 endorsements, including 1 from his wife and 2 from his children. (Hannah, Reuben and Abbie endorse this award)

🏆 MOST USES OF THE WORD "POTENTIAL" IN AN ENDORSEMENT LIST

Troy Gramling has potentially realised his potential with his book "Potential" (Whitaker House), in which the 31 endorsers use the word "potential" a total of 66 times (one "potential" for every 2.24 pages).

🏆 MOST ENDORSED PARENTING BOOK

It's been estimated that there are more books on Christian parenting than there are Christian parents. This year's most endorsed addition is "Grounded in Grace" by Jonathan Holmes (New Growth Press), with 21 endorsements (1 per 4.9 pages)

🏆 MOST ENDORSED BOOK WITH A SQUIRREL ON THE COVER

This category did not have as many nominees this year as I'd hoped. But we honour squirrel-lover Christie Thomas, whose "Little Habits, Big Faith" (NavPress) has 18 endorsements (1 per 8.94 pages; sadly none from squirrels)

🏆 LONGEST ENDORSEMENT LIST WHERE THE AUTHOR AND ALL OF THE ENDORSERS HAVE FIRST NAMES BEGINNING WITH THE LETTER J

Congratulations to Jonathan Landry Cruse (with help from Jason, Jonny, Jonty and Josh), who wins this award for his "Sing in Exultation" (10Publishing)

🏆 THE CHRIS GREEN AWARD FOR FEWEST ENDORSEMENTS

This year we celebrate the endorsement-free pages of "Fly Through the Bible" by Colin Smith (Moody), which has a total of 0 endorsements.

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book for free, but this has not affected my judgment.

🏆 THE PUBLISHER AWARD

Sadly, The Good Book Company have failed to defend their title for a fourth year. Instead, the winning publisher is NavPress, who published four books with more than 15 endorsements in 2024.

Thank you, Nav Press, for your commitment to endorsements.

🏆 THE DONALD A. CARSON AWARD FOR SERVICES TO BOOK ENDORSEMENTS

This year, we recognise the work of Kevin J. Vanhoozer. In 2024, as well as getting 20 endorsements for his "Mere Christian Hermeneutics", KJV endorsed at least 17 books from 13 imprints.

Thank you, Dr Vanhoozer!

And that's it! Thank you for joining us for the 2025 Christian Book Endorsement Awards. Please let me know if you spot any errors or omissions. And remember to share any long endorsement lists you spot this year!

Happy reading!