Spaghetti and meatballs. Peanut butter and jelly. Coke and peanuts. What do each of these combinations have in common? You can hardly imagine one without the other. But of all the combinations in the world the one that has to stand clearly among them all is a preacher and his books. It’s rare that you meet a preacher who doesn’t love books. They serve as a source of inspiration and guidance into his true pursuit – a deeper and greater understanding of the Bible itself.
Many people misunderstand the relationship a preacher has with his books. Sometimes they assume that because he spends a lot of time in books secondary to the Bible that he is more concerned with the words of men than he is with the word of God. I’m not going to pretend that might not be the case with a minor few. Sadly, some preachers won’t let God get a word in edgewise in their preaching. However, for the vast majority those additional books simply serve as helpers in his attempt to better convey God’s message.
The reality is, though, that books are not beneficial only to preachers for their purposes; they can be very beneficial to all Christians in their pursuit of gaining a deeper understanding of the Bible. The only problem is that a lot of people don’t really know how to go about making wise purchases. For a long time I didn’t either. I remember early in my preaching days that I was so concerned with building up my library that I bought just about anything and everything I could get my hands on. That allowed me to get a variety of material dealing with a variety of areas, but it also ended up with me having a lot of stuff I don’t really need or use. I don’t pretend to have it all figured out when it comes to book buying, but I have learned from experience and I wanted to offer a few suggestions for how you (preacher or not) can build a library that is useful to you.
1. Be pointed in what you buy. We all have individual areas where we need help in more than others. Some need linguistic tools. They can benefit from books that examine the Greek and Hebrew languages and help in understanding the intricacies of the ancient text. Some benefit from seeing both sides of an argument and reasoning an issue out. Debate books can be a huge asset to them. Some like to know what cultural and geographic implications impacted statements or events in the Bible. Those needs can be satisfied with books dealing with Bible history. We could go on with this but my point is that while everyone can benefit from a variety of tools, we each have particular areas where we have special interest or need. We should be pointed in making sure we buy what we need and not necessarily just what somebody else says we should have. Otherwise we’ll waste a lot of money (and shelf space) that could be put to much better use.
2. Be picky with what you buy. Even when you’re looking at books dealing with the specific areas you’ve decided you should target it is still very easy to end up with books that are of absolutely no value to you. I’ve seen folks pick books up and scarcely look them over before they commit to buying them. Maybe they are buying them on recommendation (or are simply mesmerized at the pretty cover) but regardless of what other factors play into the book buying process one should still give their due diligence to make sure that the book is what you need and want. Read through the table of contents and make sure it is laid out in a way that you prefer and would be most beneficial. Read through a page or two and see if it is well written. Check the footnotes or bibliography and see how well it is researched and cited. Make sure it is a resource you can use. Otherwise any other factor is pointless.
3. Be practical with what you buy. If you love books it can become very easy to go overboard buying them. I have had this problem, though not to the extent of others. I remember in preaching school, a time when the fever to buy books is at its highest, our instructors telling us to be careful because you can’t eat books. Their point was we needed to be careful to not buy books to such an extent that our families suffered financially. I have been fortunate in that Kristy has never begrudged me buying books, but I have tried to use some common sense in the process. There have been times, and there still are, when I have seen books I would have loved to have but passed on them because I did not have the money at the time to buy them. As in all other areas of life, when it comes to book buying practicality must reign.
I’m sure that there is plenty more I could say about books. I love them. I heard a preacher recently joke that if they were to take the smell of an old book, bottle it, and sell it preachers would buy it by the case. I fear I would be first in line. The key, though, is that any book we buy should ultimately only point us to God and His truth. Outside of that purpose any book we buy will be in vain.
-Andy Brewer