You Must Buy This Book!!

So often, it seems that when a group of Christians think that there is a problem in their church or a new opportunity on the horizon, the solution begins and usually ends at:

• Buying a particular popular book by a Christian author.
• Paying to attend the Xcitement Christian Expo Conference 2006 in Las Vegas (or whatever conference name is selected).
• Hiring a popular Christian speaker to come to the church to address the congregation.

Whenever there is something to be done, we must spend money before doing it. Or maybe even spending money is the whole action taken. This phenomenon occurred to me in a recent class discussion about teaching prayer at local churches. The professor listed at length and extemporaneously many books and study guides that the church could acquire to give to its members. Because, of course, pastors and laymen alike easily have the time to read the contents of a LifeWay store.

How do we teach a church to pray? It ain't nuclear rocket brain surgery. Prayer is relatively simple. A sermon or even a series of sermons should cover the subject in its entirety. There are innovative prayer forms like lectio divina or prayer beads that may be helpful, but nothing to justify the avalanche of books on the subject. And when we push pastors to acquire and read these books in the volume that the published, we are saying that seminary graduate ministers lack the knowledge necessary to teach their congregations basic subjects. We debilitate pastors by convincing them that they are fundamentally incompetent in their positions without the spoon-feeding of the Christian publishing industry.

I often feel pushed to read the latest Christian bestseller, attend a certain conference, or listen to a particular speaker. It is as though one of the purposes of the church is to financially support a class of professional speakers and writers.* And if you spend a lot of your money on all of the latest books or conferences, you're not being consumerist or indulgent because you're spending money on God. If you empty your checking account at Cokesbury, you're practically tithing!

How much of your reading time is spent on Christian books that will not actually help your ministry in practical, concrete ways?** Will bringing a speaker to your church be more spiritually nourishing than reading his book and giving the surplus to a local homeless shelter? Are you attending a conference because you can't get certain information any other way or because you get a chance to network and be entertained? The Church exists on earth to erect the Kingdom of God, not the Industry of God.

*I recall one associate pastor saying this almost directly after his labors to get a popular speaker to come to our church resulted in congregational disinterest.

**Dr. Bob Tuttle, one of my profs, has a good rule of thumb: always spend more or equal time in daily reading the of Bible as you do reading anything else. If you aren't immersed in Scripture, "your theology is the latest book you've read."