On Reading Books - One Preacher's Perspective

 

 

Photo, Unsplash Masjid Pogung Dalangan

One Day Incomprehensible - Six Days Invisible?

Just what do preachers do? Monday to Friday, I mean? 

The old adage, "Six days invisible, one day incomprehensible" may have fit the Victorian parish vicar who spent his week in leisure or amateur scientifics, but that glove does not fit the pastor's hand.

Christian preachers, following Paul's lead, read. Paul urged young Timothy to bring not only his cloak but also his "scrolls, especially the parchments." (2 Timothy 4:13)

Why do Pastors read?

Pastors do not have to be scholars, far less academics, but reading helps to keep their mental muscles agile. Study days are never over for preachers because thinking tendons, if not used, grow weak, minds become lazy, intellects atrophy. And where the mind leads, the sermon is sure to follow. We read to keep our God-given minds alive.

We read, secondly, to balance ourselves. For example, if someone has spent a lifetime reading the famous reformers, such as Zwingli, Luther and Calvin, it would be wise to spend time reading the forgotten reformers, the Anabaptists; men like Peter Riedemann, Dirk Philips and Menno Simons. To read only what confirms our biases maketh a narrow man.

Thirdly, we read to be challenged. Christian doctrine is like a map. Although we may have mastered the broad outlines of every doctrinal continent, there are so many smaller islands to discover, and more detailed coastlines to explore. While we should never change our fundamental beliefs, we may - and must - grow in areas of secondary truth.

In the fourth place, we read because we want to advance in knowledge and doctrine. He who thinks he has arrived because he has Berkhof or Grudem sitting on his shelves is mistaken. As if ants will ever grasp the Everest of divine truth! We want our hearers to sense their preachers are growing. (One sign of that growth may be that we find it ever more difficult to return to old sermon notes: we read them today and ask the Lord not to remember the sins of our youth). 

We read, fifthly, because we want to fill up the well. The preacher who does not read can easily preach the same sermon every week, no matter what the passage. There is nothing new, the well has run dry long ago. The congregation, longsuffering souls, has heard everything the preacher has to offer. For the sake of the congregation, then, pastors read.

Finally, we read because we want to understand the people we preach to. Our own backgrounds are limited, our associations circumscribed. How will we understand bankers and bakers, factory workers and farmers, teachers, terrorists and tattooists unless we read about their lives? The narrower our past, the more we ought to read.

The content of our reading

What then shall we read? 

Preachers read the Scriptures

The first priority is to read spiritually. Most of our reading must be in God's inexhaustible Word. Just this morning, for example, I was taught something new and comforting about the way the Lord leads his people, from my daily reading through the Psalms:

"Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen." (Psalm 77:19)

The Lord leads his people even though they can't always see tangible evidence of him going before them. Just as there were no footprints before Israel as they crossed the sea - just an open pathway between towering waters - so we need not worry if no signs and trumpets are heard when the Lord leads; an open door is enough.

Scripture must be a preacher's most important source of reading.

Preachers are helped by spiritual books

Next come spiritual books - biographies of great Christian men and women of old, doctrine books, devotional reads, books on church history, books on topics such a prayer. There is a world of blessing to be had from spiritual classics such as Pilgrim's Progress and the works of thoughtful and thought-provoking saints from Tersteegen to Tozer, from Bernard to Bunyan.  

Preachers are helped by secular books of general interest

It was said of a leader who fell not so many decades ago, that for every Christian book he read he devoured two secular ones. That may have explained his fall. It is not a good boast. We can know all the twists and turns of contemporary thought but end up useless in God's kingdom because a rich diet of foolishness - and the wisdom of the world is passing foolishness - easily turns the reader into a fool: we are, after all, what we eat.

Most reading should be spiritual, but not all. We must understand the world we live in, the people who live in it, the passing philosophies (however foolish), the struggles, trials and temptations of our age. 

A preacher's reading must be disciplined

Lastly, a pastor's reading must be disciplined. It is easy to read what comes easy to us, to read what takes our fancy. But like everything else in a life of discipleship, reading must be disciplined. Here are a my six top tips:

1. Read old books (mainly) but also read a few new. 

2. Read deep books (mainly) and read simple ones.

3. Read widely, not narrowly.

4. Read regularly, not occasionally. 

5. Take notes if it helps, translate the illustrations into a lessons bank if you can.

6. Don't read too much - if you like reading. There's other stuff to do.

Know yourself, find your own rythm. Are you a grazer or a three-courser? Some of us can only read an hour every day, others can get lost in words for half a day. Some can read only in serial, one book at a time, others find it easier to have a dozen books on the go. Don't be afraid to give up on a book (I once gave up on a two-volume biography because it was all hagiogrpahy). But don't be afraid to come back to a book you gave up on and try to read it another way. A few years I gave up on "Dominion" by Tom Holland because the style was so flowery; I have returned to it with a new method - one chapter per week and it is working. 

However you read, if reading is not thoughtful, prayerful, planned and disciplined  the preacher won't reap the full harvest of written treasure.

The Art of Christian Parenting

  Kabita Darlami on Unsplash

Remember Jochebed

We live in a world where for fathers, but especially for mothers, their paid employment is esteeemd higher than bringing up children. Christian parents need to press the refresh button and be reminded of the awesome privilege of bringing up children. 

Jochebed was the wise mother of Moses. Though her baby was 'kidnapped' by an Egyptian Princess, she had the privilege of bringing him up until he was weaned, so to about the age of 3 or 4.

In that short time she was able to pass on to her little son the ways of God so thoroughly that he understood the mighty power of God, and understood who he was - one of God's people. At the age of 40 angered by the injustice of Pharaoh against God's people he began his life-calling as a great leader.

So much teaching in such a short period of time. All to mother Jochebed's great credit. And to God's glory.

One Line Parenting Advice

In one deceptively short verse, the apostle Paul, teaches parents how to bring up their kids. Here it goes, Ephesians 6:4:

"Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."

His advice is first a negative - don't get your kids mad, followed by a positive, bring them up in God's ways.

Negatively: Don't get your kids mad!

“Fathers do not exasperate your children.”

Why “fathers” and not “fathers and mothers?” 

Because in the Scriptures the male gender is used as shorthand for both genders—just as Paul can say “brothers” when he’s talking to “brothers and sisters.” Paul is talking to mothers here as well as fathers.   

Why just "fathers?" Because fathers bear the ultimate responsibility as heads of their homes.

Why "fathers?" Because fathers can sometimes back out of this responsibility? Probably. 

Fathers and mothers, "Don’t get your kids mad!" is Paul's first piece of Holy Spirit inspired parental advice. Paul is talking about a parenting style that does not result in positive outcomes, but only results in constant anger, conflict and strife. Kids will always get mad at their parents; Paul is not saying, “Do absolutely nothing that angers your kids.” No, he’s talking about a negative parenting style. 

Parents have to work it out, what gets a kid mad?

•  Inconsistency in discipline, either between parents (disagreement between them) or from day to day, or from circumstance to circumstance (i.e. when out in public) gets a kid mad. 
• Being unreasonable in discipline— too harsh, where the punishment does not fit the crime. Every parent has done it: grounded for the next 75 years!
• Injustice—soft on one child, harsh on another for the same crime. 
• Having favourites? —if you want the rest of your kids to get mad, just make one your favourite! Remember the story of Joseph and his brothers? 
• Sarcastic or belittling comments? 
• Refusing  to recognise their uniqueness, expecting all the kids to get straight As or all the kids to do well at sports, not recognising they are all different—that’ll get them cross. 
• Setting too high standards “I can never please mom”. 
• Only negative parenting, never a word of encouragement! Always on at them.   
• Smothering them—helicopter parenting, where the parent hovers over them every moment of the day, not allowing them a millimetre of personal space?

There is a negative kind of parenting, says Paul, who’s effect is to create exasperated kids. Walk away from that negative path.

Positively: Bring them up in God's Ways

“Instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

Those two words, “training” and “instruction” cover the full range of life training, from education all the way through to discipline.

We might summarise the Apostle's positive advice like so:

Parents it’s your responsibility parents, not the responsibility of schools, state or church.

We live in a society where everything is provided for us, and where parents can so easily think it is the responsibility of the state to teach our kids maths and English and geography, and the church to teach our kids the Bible. 

Scripture corrects all of that and tells parents that they are responsible for bringing up their children: “Fathers”, “Mothers,” “Parents”,  for bringing up their children. We may delegate the task of teaching maths to our local school, but not the responsibility. Do you see the difference? The buck stops with the parent. If my kid is doing bad in English, I’ve got to sort that out, I am finally responsible. Paul wants Christian parents to take full responsibility for their children's up-bringing and not to delegate that responsibility to school, state or church.

Parents, discipline your children

Discipline is implied in both of the Greek words. When I was around seven years old, and our family of 6 kids lived in Karachi, Pakistan, I committed three sins all in a row: I coveted my school teacher’s cigarette lighter,  stole it and then I devised an elaborate deception to make it mine:  at the end of school, I walked over to my dad’s Jeep, bent down and pretended that I had found it near the wheel of the car! My parents never taught me to covet, steal or lie, but the seeds of all those sins, coveting, stealing and lying—and of every other sin— were already in my little heart, “Surely I was sinful at birth, in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5).  

Why do we need to discipline our children? Because they are born sinners, who left to themselves will naturally go astray. Our task as parents is to lovingly bend the will without breaking the spirit. “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far away.” (Proverbs 22:15)  

The world might say, “Little child are good and perfect, the problem is with their  surroundings, it's with their nurture, not with their nature.” But the Bible teaches what parents discover in every child— that we have inherited the disease of sin from Adam and it’s the reason we must exercise loving discipline: to bend the will away from wrong and towards the right, without breaking the spirit. 

Parents, you must exercise loving discipline; you work it out for yourselves! If you spare the "rod" you will spoil the child.

Parents teach your children God's ways

In the third place, parents, teach your children God’s ways. I would encourage every parent to read the Bible and to talk about the ways of God at home and in the car in line with Deuteronomy 6:6-7. Pray with them. Don’t delegate that responsibility to the church. What the church does is icing on the cake, the cake itself is your responsibility.

A Christian mother once told me about a conversion regret. She became a believer when her kids were in their early teens. She was so excited to tell them about Jesus but they weren’t interested. She wished she had been converted 10 years earlier and then her children would have listened. (Of course it is never too late for the spirit of God to convert our children, pray for them, but we all know what this mother meant). Read the Bible to your kids during the week. Time is running out. The window of opportunity will soon pass. 

Love as the Father loves

And finally, love your kids as the Father loves. How did God the Father show his love to his One and only begotten Son? Do you remember when Jesus was baptised? “This is my Son (MY, so glad he is part of my family) whom I love (tell your kids you love them!); with him I am well pleased.” (Encourage them!) (Matthew 3:17) 

And how does God the Father show his love for you and I his adopted children? “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1) 

The ultimate model, the high pinnacle of parental love is to be found in God the Father. For those who never had a good parental model, study the Father's love in Scripture. How he loves us, forgives our foibles, cares for us, ptoects us and provides for our every need. 

“To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:13)