A New Look at an Old Idea - Brad Hodges on our Library

I want to make sure that everyone is aware of a relatively new resource that is available in the church bookstore.  There is a section on the wall opposite the checkout desk that is now serving as our library.  These books are available to church members to checkout and take home at no charge.  The selection is rather modest, for now, but there are some great books available, and Lord willing the selection will grow over time.

The bookstore serves several functions for us.  One of them is as a sort of confessional bulletin board.  After ten minutes in the bookstore, a visitor to our church can have a pretty good idea where we stand on the key points of doctrine and practice.  We're reformed-charismatic-baptistic-complementarian-elder led.  These are all evident at a glance from the titles on our book store shelves.  This can also apply to church members.  If, for example, several years removed from our Revelation sermon series, you find yourself saying, "tell me again which millennium camp we're in," the answer can be found on the back cover of a book in the book store.

But of course the primary purpose of the bookstore is the most obvious one.  It is to make available the kinds of books that will be helpful as you seek to grow in godliness and to learn more about God.  The conviction that drives the existence of the library is that in the Age of Amazon, offering these kinds of books for sale is a less valuable service than it might once have been.  It’s the same price, and more convenient, to have the newest Ted Tripp book delivered to your front door than it is to wait tillSunday and come find it in our book store.  

But what the library can do is offer us access to the kinds of books that, for one reason or another, we are all less likely to own.  For example, there are a number of hefty commentaries and collected works that most of us can’t justify spending $50 to have sitting on our shelf at home, but you might benefit from thumbing through when the sermon series introduces a question that you haven’t had occasion to think through before.  The library is perfect for that sort of thing.  Then there are books that are small enough to read cover to cover, but are somewhat off the beaten path.  We have a great book by Philip Johnson on confronting Darwinism.  Another on Martin Luther’s ideas about vocation.  Then there are books by great historical writers who we will all benefit from reading, but who may not occupy a place in the pantheon in your mind.  I have in mind men like G.K. Chesterton and the poet George Herbert.  These and more are all available in the library.

So please do stop by and take a look.  If this proves to be something that is helpful then we will work to expand it.  And if you have thoughts or suggestions, or are interested in serving in the bookstore, please send me an email or catch me at church and let me know.

Brad