"Read"
I came to appreciate the great blessing of being raised by parents who enjoyed reading. My mother was not so much of a book reader, but she was always (if memory serves me) reading a magazine, and she read to my brother and me often before we started school. She also loved Reader’s Digest’s condensed articles. My dad was a prolific reader from a young age. Raised in a large Oklahoma sharecropper family, Dad was taught to read at age 4 by one of his older sisters. He was often so caught up reading that he missed meals because his dad would not allow any second calls to the supper table. Dad’s interest in what he was reading overcame his hunger. And missing meals to read caused physical harm. He grew to only 6’ 3” and 230 lbs.
The benefit to me of that kind of home environment (I remember that dad usually read an entire book after supper before he went to bed!) was that I didn’t need convincing that reading was important. Couple that with Miss Daggs’ use of phonics to give me a great start in school my first year, and Mrs. Randal in second grade, and I had the advantage of reading parents who encouraged reading and superb teachers who were very effective. That said, I read little until after my conversion.
After reading the Bible through after coming to Christ, the first book I bought and read was “The Genesis Flood” by Whitcomb and Morris, a great read. That was more than fifty-two years ago, and I am still reading. However, three things about reading surface in my retirement musings.
If you read my Ministerial Musings blog, you might recall that my last contribution mentioned having been a student at a dozen colleges, universities, and seminaries. In none of those schools (some of which were very good experiences and others not so good) do I have any recollection of a teacher or professor pointing out that the class should read, read, and read some more. But readers can often tell who reads, and students who look for readers uncover clues that convince them the person standing in front of them is a serious reader. By the way, so do Church members.
So, upon reflection, and perhaps because they were so convinced of the importance of reading that they could not imagine their students not recognizing the importance of reading, I recall no one doing for me what I am attempting to do for you, which is challenge you to read, read, and read some more. I am especially challenging Gospel ministers and those who anticipate entering the ministry at some point to read, read, and then read. But read what? Read everything! You would be surprised at how many 18th and 19th-century American frontier preachers in the West and Southeast entered the ministry with a meager education and little formal training, but because they read, read, and continued to read over time, were blessed by God with incredible breadth and depth.
It goes without saying that God’s Word is primary. Read God’s Word. Read it some more. Study God’s Word. Memorize God’s Word. Hide God’s Word in your heart (not the same as memorizing!). But a person is foolish to read only God’s Word. An illustration and then an explanation.
Readers of history might be a bit surprised by the number of schools established to train Gospel ministers (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Southern Seminary, etc.) that had professors of note who not only taught Hebrew, Greek, and homiletics, but also mathematics, chemistry, and geometry. That could not have happened if those professors had read and studied only the Bible! The benefits of reading are too numerous to recount here, so I will provide only three:
Reading to learn rather than reading as a form of escapism requires a measure of humility that concerns me in the case of preachers who don’t read. A Missouri pastor (to remind you of something already blogged) told a new member (a retired pastor who is a longtime friend of mine who had a ten-thousand-volume library) that he did not read. My friend asked him what he did instead of reading. He said, “I listen to podcasts.” My friend told me it showed. Podcasts, though great while driving, are very poor substitutes for reading, and are in no way comparable to studying.
Reading to learn, even a book not directly related to God’s Word, is a form of sitting at someone’s feet who has gone to a great deal of trouble to compile and present something for the benefit of others. Thus, to open the book to consider what the author has offered requires humility: to be the learner as someone else seeks to teach, to train, to inform. Therefore, it is a false display of humility to proudly insist that there is benefit to reading only God’s Word. As well, consider that reading a book is rightly understood to be a conversation with the author, and who has not benefited from an interaction with someone who has a different opinion because of a different perspective, or a different study of the subject matter?
This brings up yet another reason for reading: to sharpen your edge. I once learned of a Baptist pastor who admonished preachers to read only books written by men in his camp. I heartily disagree with that naive and childish approach to reading. While I do not suggest reading heretics (and I mean real heretics), one reason to read men with whom you have some disagreements is to face in a straightforward fashion challenges to your positions. And if you have read God’s Word or ever sharpened a knife or ax or hatchet (Proverbs 27.17: “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”), you can see the benefit that comes from a bit of friction.
So much is missed by shallow men who refuse to read Spurgeon or Lloyd-Jones or Pink because they were five-point Calvinists, or refused to read Tozer because he was an Arminian. Thus, while one reason to read is to learn from one who teaches you, another reason to read is to sharpen your edge by developing your positions (if they are right) so you don’t have to fall back on the declaration so often used by those who refuse to put in the hard work of reading (“That’s our stand.”).
I know a well-read younger pastor who was heartbroken as a new believer when a single question forever chilled his relationship with his beloved pastor. Reading First Thessalonians, he asked his pastor, “What is election?” His pastor did not want to discuss the word. When the then-new Christian pressed just a bit to discuss the word election (he was sincerely curious), their relationship effectively ended because his pastor did not want to talk about it!
As he related this to me, I was reminded of my first pastor’s attitude toward such questions. It began with me asking, “What is the church?” To which my pastor responded with his standard response to every question posed to him, “That’s a very fine question, and the subject of my current study. When I arrive at a settled position, I will get back to you.” But he never did, and it was the same response I received to every question I asked him. When I asked other members, they told me he gave them the same response.
Whether the pastor of a small congregation or a Church of multiplied thousands, a man who is not open to questions, is not eager to address the questions of his members, or who does not create scenarios where questions can be fielded by him, is a man who is likely not widely read, who probably does not study God’s Word, and is fearful of being asked questions he cannot adequately answer.
I know, I know. I am meandering a bit. Do you know where the word meander comes from? Everything in this blog is preparatory (for me more than for you) to urging you to read, read, and read even more. In preparation for a life of reading, you need to not only learn how to read, but also how to read well, and you also need to learn how to read a book. Yes, there is much more to reading any book than just opening it and reading.
I have been a reader for seventy years! I have been a prolific reader for half a century. But it was less than ten years ago that I stumbled across a book I wish I had known about when I was young: “How To Read A Book.” It was originally written by Mortimer J. Adler in 1940 and revised in 1972. “This book teaches you how to read books effectively, including how to understand, analyze, and extract information from different genres.” And if you think you can be anywhere near the pastor you ought to be without being a prolific reader, there is a part of the Gospel ministry that will forever be well out of your reach.
Buy this book. Read this book, however long it takes you. Then read it again in five years. You will thank me for recommending it to you.
