As a judicatory minister I would have the opportunity to visit a lot of pastors in their studies or offices. One thing I would always do is check out their libraries. I wanted to see what they were reading, what helps they were using to prepare sermons and their own souls. I recognized that when visiting with a bivocational minister that most of their books were probably at their home where they prepared their sermons. That's where my library was when I was a bivocational pastor. If I had the opportunity I would also check out the church library to see what was being offered to the members to read. I sometimes left the church disappointed in what I found in the libraries.
I felt many of the pastors didn't really have the tools they needed for serious Bible study and sermon preparation. I do have to factor in that those resources might have been on their computers due to the number of excellent Bible study tools that are now available to download. However, if I was reading their libraries right they didn't have the resources that they really needed. Some of what they did have were outdated and probably from their seminary days. (I have to admit that I have some of those books as well, and even though I never use them I hate to get rid of them!) I would often find a few one-volume commentaries, a sprinkling of other Bible study tools, some books on church leadership and some books on personal growth and Christian living.
Church libraries were often even worse. Too many suffer from well-meaning church members bringing their discarded and outdated books to the church library and filling the shelves with books that no one wants to read today. The majority of books I've seen in church libraries are Christian fiction and some books on living the Christian life. Nothing wrong with any of these, but are they really sufficient to help disciple a congregation?
What I didn't find in many pastor and church libraries were books on evangelism, apologetics, church growth and books that addressed the pressing social issues of the day in a serious manner. I found very few books that explored topics such as race relations, sexual and gender issues, poverty, suicide, addictions, and the breakdown of the family. These are important topics today which many excellent Christian writers are addressing, but you would not know that by looking in the libraries of pastors and churches.
Do we not want to explore these topics? Do we think if we ignore them they will go away? Are we afraid to have our thinking on these issues challenged by what we read? With the absence of books on outreach and evangelism it appears these are not important to many of our churches either. Are our people so gifted in knowing how to share and/or defend their faith that we don't need to provide them with apologetics and other tools to help them when they are questioned about why they believe what they say they believe?
If we feed our bodies with nothing but desserts we will pay the price. Those desserts may taste great, but at some point they will cause us problems. The same with what we read. If we read only fluff we may be entertained for a season, but our personal and spiritual growth will be stunted. We need to feed our minds and souls with knowledge and wisdom that will help us to grow deeper in our relationship with God and one another. In some ways what we read will impact us more than almost anything else we can do.
I want to encourage every pastor to take a look at his or her library and see what elements of ministry your library lacks. What areas of ministry do you need to grow in? Identify those areas and begin to gather the material you need to help you achieve that growth.
What does your congregation need to do better? Do they need to learn how to share their faith? Make sure they have good books to help them learn how to do that, and then promote those books as often as you can. Maybe they need help in better understand what they believe and why. Make sure they have access to those kinds of resources as well. Your church library can be a great tool to help you disciple your congregation but only if it is stocked with books that will really make a difference in people's lives.
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