The Importance of Books by Ali Hull
We are delighted to have Ali , sub-editor and book review editor for Preach magazine , offer her thoughts on the importance of books .
Why do books matter to preachers , beyond the one book of books ? It ’ s a fair question , but it seems that Christian leaders cared about books very early on – we have Paul asking for his books to be brought to him when he was in prison , along with a cloak .
What sort of books they were , of course , is another question , but we can take him as our starting point . I have often felt that the Gospel of John , with its emphasis on the ‘ Word ’ is God showing how important books and writing are to him and his way of doing things .
An unlimited sea of knowledge
The thing that books do supremely well is widen our knowledge . We cannot visit all the countries in the world , or go back in time to talk to past leaders or watch past events . But books can – and do – take us anywhere and everywhere . And , if we choose wisely , the process is one of the most enjoyable that I know .
I do have some rules , though . One of the first , now that I am older , is ‘ You don ’ t have to finish a book if you don ’ t want to .’ Life is too short to battle on , if every sentence has to be read twice . In my long career in publishing , I found that often academics wrote badly : whether or not their end user , the reader , could grasp what they were saying didn ’ t seem to matter as much as it should have done .
There is a reason why books written by professional writers are more readable – if you cannot write in a way that others want to read , you won ’ t get paid and you won ’ t eat . It concentrates the mind .
Who are you ministering to ?
Christian leaders need to go beyond the commentaries and the theology , though . The focus of our ministry is people , and understanding people . I once belonged to a church where the rector really wanted to be an academic . On being
told his congregation weren ’ t coming on a Sunday evening because they were all at home ‘ watching Last of the Summer Wine ’ his response was ‘ What is Last of the Summer Wine ?’ It was a while ago , clearly … He had never heard of this , or probably any of the other popular TV programmes of the time . On all sorts of levels , and not just this one , he didn ’ t ‘ get ’ his congregation , and in turn they didn ’ t understand him .
So books can open up the rest of the human race to us : what it feels like to be bereaved , to be childless , to struggle with a particular health condition , maybe mental or physical .
Any pastor will have , in their congregation , people struggling with a wide range of conditions , experiences , circumstances and so on , and reading up on them will help . And preachers and leaders also need to relax . Books are good for this – probably better than watching screens . So find good novels ; enjoy them , and also learn from them : they can be equally good for insight into the human condition as a memoir or a biography .
The newspaper and the word
It was John Stott who suggested preachers needed to pay attention to what was in the newspaper as well as what was in the Bible , and his books on contemporary issues were enormously helpful on this . But newspapers can only go so far . I find books on issues can go to much greater depths , and this is one reason why I try to ensure that the books we review go beyond commentaries and theology , so that we can recommend the latest good book on climate change , or politics , and so on .
Preachers need to be able to apply what the Bible says to the world that we are all living in , not to retreat from that world . To do that effectively , we have to have the knowledge and understanding of that world : and also to recognise that God does
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