These tips are from the book Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books
When I became a new believer, I met a pastor who loved books. And that pastor lit under my reading list a desire to read that has never diminished. I can recall in vivid detail one fall cookout on the church’s back lawn. At some point as the celebration began winding down, my pastor called me aside and we bailed from the party to his office library to talk books. Jumping from title to topic, pulling books and reading excerpts, he narrated the importance and value of great books. This “biblioshepherding” early in my Christian life fueled my reading appetite and directed my reading list.
Men like my pastor are important resources because there are young men who want to read, but who need direction. So how can pastors encourage reading? Here is a list of suggestions.
- Make opportunities to talk about books. Encouraging men to read is as simple as getting them into your own library. Show them the books that have helped you. Explain books, show them how you have organized them, and even lend some. Pastors can assume that a large portion of the men in their church rarely observed their dads reading books, and as a result, they are intimidated and often overwhelmed in a library. They need a mentor. Pastor, you can be that testimony, you can be that example, you can be that life-changing mentor.
- Illustrate sermon points with classic literature. Pastors can feel an enormous pressure to quote and illustrate sermons from the latest “reality” TV shows, popular movies, contemporary music, and YouTube videos. Why not pull illustrations from classic literature? To illustrate a sermon, look to the stories by Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, or Shakespeare. Classic literature connects with people and provides a largely untapped storehouse of soul-stirring sermon illustrations.
- Pepper your sermon with direct quotes from Christian living books. Many of the most profound excerpts from books that have shaped my heart were carefully chosen and read aloud in a sermon. Pastors who can select and share excerpts from books not only model the value of reading and encourage literacy, but they also make subtle book recommendations based on specific needs of the local church.
- Lead a book discussion group. Leading discussion groups is not easy, but it can be a rewarding role for a pastor. And great books are available on almost every topic and for every group. A pastor can lead a teen group through fictional allegory (like The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan), he can lead a group of business readers through a book on glorifying God in the workplace (like Luther on Vocation by Gustaf Wingren), he can lead a group of men in a discussion on theology (like Knowing God by J. I. Packer), or he can lead his church in a discussion of a novel that stirs spiritual reflection (like The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis). Reading groups led by pastors are especially helpful in identifying and training young leaders within the church.
- Start a church library or book table. Make good books easily available to your people. There’s no need to have a huge library or bookstore. Pick five to ten titles and quote from them or mention them at some point in your announcements or preaching. By making the books visible on Sunday, you make a bold statement about what the church believes theologically, and you make a bold statement about the importance of reading for Christians.
- Maintain a list of recommended books on your church website. Especially if you don’t have the funds to maintain a church bookstore, maintain a recommended reading list on the church website or blog. Don’t load it with all the books you read in seminary. Keep the titles diverse, including theology and Christian living, even literature and poetry. Keep the list to the “best of the best” and be sure to freshen it with new titles as you discover them.
- Suggest books regularly as part of a book-of-the-month feature. Consider recommending a new book each month. Hold the book up, explain the value of the book in your own life, and preview how others will benefit from reading it. Ensure that copies are available when you make the announcement.
- Recommend chapters of books. Very often, pastors will be asked for recommendations on a particular topic of the Christian life. One pastor has found it helpful to recommend chapters from a book rather than an entire book. With this practice, he can avoid intimidating nonreaders and use the chapter as a specific tool to address a particular need in someone’s life. This is especially helpful when working with younger Christians who would be overwhelmed by an entire book on theology or Christian living. Consider each chapter that you read in a Christian living book as an individual tool for your pastoral use.
- Answer theological questions with pages from books. Inevitably, people in your church will raise theological questions. When they do, find the answers in theological books, photocopy the pages, highlight the relevant material, and give it to them to read. This act will model the relevance of reading, and it’s a small way to say to them that the important questions in life are addressed in the pages of books. It reveals how relevant books are to real life.
- Give books as gifts. For visitors, for members, for new parents, for whatever reason, find opportunities to gift books in your church. Set aside funds in the church budget for this. Books are meaningful gifts; they can serve a strategic function in the life of the reader, and they invite others in the church to experience the delights of reading.
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