“A PASTOR’S LIBRARY SYSTEM”
If someone has been called to the Gospel ministry, there is a good chance he will end up in the pastorate. And if he ends up in the pastorate, he will have the opportunity to build a personal library. I understand that rapid developments in technology are quickly altering the terrain when it comes to one’s library, so I will focus my attention on printed and bound books in a personal library, the kind of books that you can see, smell, and feel, the kind of books you can highlight and underline, and if you are not a bibliophile like I am occasionally dog-ear. There is also room in this universe for Kindle. Now that I live in Greece, I have only one book besides my two Bibles. So, in God's Providence, I am forced to rely on Kindle more than I might have imagined.
I was first exposed to a pastor’s library when I was only months old in the faith, only recently graduated from engineering school, and not having had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home. For that reason, I was somewhat startled by my first pastor’s library, about a yard wide, on a single shelf, bleached by sunlight coming through his office window. Meaning? Meaning he was not a reader (confirmed by a visit to his home). Meaning he was not a student. None of his books were anything close to being recently purchased. And none of his books or dust covers gave any indication of repeated use. Add to that his habit of steadfastly refusing to provide concise answers to Bible questions posed to him by anyone, and it added up to a pastor who was not a reader, who was not a student, who was not well informed, and who was unwilling or unable to respond in a satisfactory way to reasonable questions.
My second pastor was a significantly better student than my first pastor. Better educated, he was not a reader (that I could tell) of theologies or commentaries, but he devoured contemporary Christian literature devoted to Church Growth Principles and the dynamics of congregational manipulation. What tipped me off, however, was his comment after his B.A. and M.A. from Baptist colleges that the most beneficial course he had ever taken was a business management course offered by the General Motors Corporation. He demonstrated considerably more excitement about what he learned from GM than what he had learned from God’s Word.
It was my third pastor, who succeeded my second pastor at the second Church I had joined to prepare for the ministry, who was a reader and a Bible student. Dr. Eli Harju had for decades been both a pastor and a Bible college teacher, and he had a legitimate library. Not only that, but he offered me his adaptation of a library system he had used for many years. For that help I am profoundly grateful a half century later.
This picture was taken around 2006, with Pam and me bracketing Dr. Eli and Mary Lou Harju. Why am I not smiling? I was thrilled to have him preach for us.
You may not think you need a library system, and if you are a manipulative hack who reads only the latest ministry How-To books, or if you have such a dim view of the Gospel ministry that you imagine it is possible to get by and make do by listening to podcasts, or you buy books of sermon outlines, or you are bird bath shallow and plan on using AI to help you build sermons, I suggest you stop reading immediately. This article is not for you. You have no appreciation for God’s dealings with His man, twisting and squeezing messages from thoroughly studied passages to prepare both man and message for feeding God’s people.
On the other hand, if you are committing to studying God’s Word (and how can you do that without sitting at the feet of other men chosen to teach you, by reading their books) while making use of a growing library, then I promise you will need a library system. I illustrate: Though my last name comes from Hanover, I am mostly Irish, so “How the Irish Saved Civilization” was a must-read for me. After buying it and reading it, I then cataloged it for inclusion into my library, only to discover I had purchased, read, and thoroughly enjoyed the book a decade earlier. Your library will grow to that size eventually, young fellow, so start cataloging now.
A pastor friend of mine (now retired) had a library of about 10,000 books. It was an impressive collection for my very well-trained preacher friend. Visiting him in another state after his retirement, I brought up his new life as a retired pastor serving under another preacher's ministry. He related a recent conversation with his new pastor, who said to him during a car ride, “I don’t read.” He just blurted it out. To which my startled and student-for-a-lifetime friend responded, “If you don’t read, what do you do?” “I listen to podcasts.” My friend had nothing more to say, because there is nothing more to say.
This photo of my library in my library was taken in the mid-2000s. I was so blessed to have a library large enough for most of my books, and a space for uninterrupted study (though I usually interrupted others far more than they interrupted me. My library was about half the size of my preacher friend's library.
Podcasts may be fine while driving alone, or while rocking on the back porch. However, there is no substitute for the grueling but rewarding work of studying God’s Word. And for the serious study of God’s Word, you need a growing library. And not just for Bible study. Gospel ministers need to be readers of a wide variety of sources, without subjecting yourself to the intellectual slavery of expensive online study helps. You even need to learn to read books that, while not very interesting at the time, are beneficial in the long term.
Enough from me about experiences. My library system from Dr. Eli Harju records books based on subject matter, as you will see in the attachment. In addition to that, I have recorded thousands of books on an Excel spreadsheet, with the following columns:
Book #, starting with 0001
Book title, the letters A and The at the end, “New Covenant, The”
Book author, always last name first, Waldrip, John S.
Book subject, from Dr. Harju’s list now modified (attached)
Publisher,
Date published,
ISBN,
Binding style (Hard, Paper, Spiral)
Year published
I hope this helps; it has been an invaluable aid to me for fifty years, and I still both admire and appreciate my pastor for bringing it to my attention.
Below is my attempt to present my adaptation of Dr. Harju's library system, which I received about fifty years ago. Properly formatted, it is two pages long with three columns per page.
PASTOR'S LIBRARY TOPICS
1-ADMINISTRATION
1-Ch Church Administration
1-CB Constitution & By-Laws
1-In Insurance
1-Le Leadership
1-Or Organization
1-RR Reports & Records
2-ANTHROPOLOGY
2-g General
2-Bi Biblical
2-Cu Cultural
3-ARCHAEOLOGY
3-g General Archaeology
3-Bi Biblical Archaeology
4-ARCHITECTURE
4-g General
4-CA Church Architecture
4-DD Design & Decoration
5-ARTS, MANUAL
6-ASTRONOMY
7-BIBLIOGRAPHY
7-g General
7-LP Lists of Publications
7-RL Religious Literature
7-TL Tape Library (Cass & CDs)
7-VL Video Library
7-Q Quotations
8-BIOGRAPHY
8-g General
8-Ac Actors
8-AS Athlete, Sportsmen
8-CB Christian Biography
8-GA Generals, Admirals, Military
8-In Industry
8-Mu Musicians
8-PL Political Leaders
PL-An Ancient
PL-Me Medieval
PL-Mo Modern
PL-Co Contemporary
8-RL Religious Leaders
RL-An Ancient
RL-Me Medieval
RL-Pu Puritans
RL-Mo Modern
RL-Co Contemporary
8-ST Scientists/Thinkers
9-BIOLOGY
9-g General
9-Cr Creationist
9-Ev Evolution
11-BOTANY
12-BROADCASTING
12-R Radio
12-TV Television
12-W Web
15-BUSINESS
15-g General
15-AA Accounts & Accounting
15-Ad Advertising
15-P Personal Finances
15-Per Personnel
15-Sa Sales, Selling
24-CHEMISTRY
29-CLUBS
29-g General
29-As Assoc, Secret (Masons, Elks)
29-BS Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts
30-COMMUNICATIONS
30-g General
30-M Mailings
32-DEMOGRAPHICS
33-DIET & NUTRITION
36-EARTH SCIENCE
40-ECONOMICS
41-EDUCATION
41-g General
41-Ad Adult Education
41-CS Correspondence Schools
41-El Elementary
41-Eq Equipment
41-Hi High School
41-HE Higher Education
41-RE Religious Education (Chr Ed)
41-SE Sex Education
41-TM Teaching Methods
41-VA Visual Aids & Audio Aids
42-ENGINEERING
43-ENTERTAINMENT
43-g General
43-Am Amusements
43-AS Athletics, Sports
43-Ga Games
43-PP Parties & Picnics
43-PT Program Tips
44-FICTION
44-C Christian Fiction
44-H Historical Fiction
44-SF Science Fiction
56-GENERAL SCIENCE
56-g General
56-CS Creation Science
56-Hi History of Science
57-GEOGRAPHY
58-GEOLOGY
60-HISTORY
60-g General
60-AH Ancient History
60-BH Baptist History
60-CH Church History
60-DA Days (Holidays)
DA-Chr Christmas
DA-Eas Easter
DA-FaD Father’s Day
DA-MoD Mother’s Day
60-IH Islamic History
60-ME Medieval History
60-MH Military History
60-MO Modern History
60-RH Religion, History of
60-US United States
60-WO World
63-HOME ECONOMICS
65-HUMOR
65-g General
65-Am American
66-INDUSTRIES
67-INVESTING
69-JOURNALISM
73-LANGUAGE(S)
74-LAW & LAW ENFORCEMENT
74-II Interview & Interrogation
75-LITERATURE
76-MATHEMATICS
77-MEDICINE
78-METEOROLOGY
79-MUSIC
79-g General
79-O Opera
79-HS History of Songs
79-Sa Sacred
80-PHILANTHROPY
81-PHILOLOGY
82-PHILOSOPHY
82-Co Conservatism
82-Hu Humanism
83-PHYSICS
84-POETRY
85-POLITICAL SCIENCE
85-g General
85-CS Church & State
85-Co Communism
85-Fed Federal Government
85-FR Foreign Relations
85-PP Political Parties
85-SG State Government
85-So Socialism
85-UN United Nations
85-US United States
85-W War
85-WG World Government
86-PROFESSIONS
87-PSYCHOLOGY
87-g General
87-At Attitudes
87-BL Body Language, Expressions
87-Ch Child
87-Co Conscience
87-Cr Crime
87-Ed Educational Psychology
87-Em Emotions (Anger, Fear, etc.)
87-K Killing
87-MH Mental Health
87-PC Pastoral Counseling
87-SP Social Psychology
88-RELIGION
88-g General - Religion
88-B Bible - The Book
88-B-g General - Contents
88-B-Bib Bibliology
88-B-Ex Exegesis
88-B-Geo Geography, Bible
88-B-His History, Bible
88-B-TC Textual Criticism
88-B-Tr Translations
88-B-OT Old Testament & sets
88-B-L Law
88-B-H Historical
88-B-W Wisdom
88-B-P Prophets
88-B-NT-Gk Greek
88-B-NT-Tr Translations
88-B-NT New Testament & sets
88-B-G Gospels
88-B-G-LC Life of Christ
88-B-A Acts
88-B-E Pauline Epistles
88-B-O Other Epistles
88-B-R Revelation
88-C Christology
C-Ad Advents, 1st, 2nd
C-As Ascension
C-At Atonement
C-Cru Crucifixion
C-De Deity
C-Ex Example
C-Hu Humanity
C-In Incarnation
C-Min Ministry
C-Mir Miracles
C-Pa Parables
C-Re Resurrection
C-Ty Typology
88-CE Criticism & Evidences (Apologetics)
88-Ch Church (Ecclesiology & Growth)
88-CL Christian Living
88-CR Comparative Religions
CR-Bu Buddhism
CR-CS Christian Science
CR-Is Islam
CR-JW Jehovah’s Witnesses
CR-Ju Judaism
CR-LT Liberation Theology
CR-Mo Mormonism
CR-NA New Age
CR-RC Roman Catholicism
CR-Sc Scientology
CR-SDA 7th Day Adventism
CR-Sp Spiritism
CR-Wo World Religions
88-CT Covenant Theology
88-De Denominations
De-Ba Baptists
De-CC Church of Christ
De-Ch Charismatic/Pentecostal
De-Co Congregational
De-DR Dutch Reformed
De-NCC National Council of Churches
De-WCC World Council of Churches
88-Di Dispensationalism
88-Do Doctrines
88-Es Eschatology
Es-An Antichrist
Es-De Death
Es-Hea Heaven
Es-Hel Hell
Es-Ju Judgments
Es-Ki Kingdom
Es-LF Lake of Fire
Es-Ra Rapture
Es-Re Revelation
Es-Tr Tribulation (70th week)
88-Ev Evangelism
Ev-CE Child Evangelism
Ev-Di Discipleship
Ev-HBS Home Bible Studies
Ev-Is Muslim Evangelism
Ev-Ju Jewish Evangelism
Ev-LDS Mormon Evangelism
Ev-RC Catholic Evangelism
Ev-SS Sunday Schools
88-G God
88-H Holy Spirit
88-He Hermeneutics
88-Ho Homiletics
Ho-S Sermons
Ho-SC Sermon Construction
88-M Miracles
88-Mi Missions
88-My Mythology
88-O Ordinances
O-Ba Baptism
O-LS Lord’s Supper
88-P Pastoral Theology
88-Pa Parenting
88-Pra Prayer & Fasting
88-Pro Prophecy
88-Re Revival
88-S Salvation
S-Co Conversion
S-Cn Conviction
S-Ju Justification
S-ES Eternal Security
S-Re Repentance
S-Sa Sanctification
88-Sa Satan & Demons
88-SS Sin & Sinners (Depravity)
88-SO Special Occasions
SO-g General
SO-Fu Funerals
SO-I Illness/Sickness
SO-Or Ordinations
SO-We Weddings
SO-X Christmas
88-St Stewardship (Tithing & Faith Promise)
88-SR Science & Religion
88-T Typology
88-U Unbelief
88-W Worship
90-SELF EXPRESSION
90-Ly Lying
90-Sp Speaking, Speech
92-SOCIOLOGY
92-g General
92-Ab Abortion
92-AIDS
92-Al Alcoholism
92-Cr Crime
92-EI Evil Influences
92-Fa Family Relationships (Divorce, Marriage)
92-Ga Gambling
92-Ju Juvenile Delinquency
92-Na Narcotics
92-OA Old Age
92-RR Race Relations
92-Se Sexism (Sex issues)
92-SS Social Security
92-VD Venereal Disease
94-SPACE SCIENCES
95-SPORTS
97-TRANSPORTATION
98-TRAVEL
100-WILDLIFE
103-WRITING & Reference
