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Blue Collar Theology 13: Church Reference Center

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Written By Tim Brister

Tim has a missionary heart for his hometown to love those close to him yet far from God. He is husband to Dusti and father to Nolan, Aiden, and Adelyn - fellow pilgrims to our celestial city.

One of the practical ways I have been thinking about in regards to implementing a Blue Collar Theology is to develop a theological reference center in your local church. Now, a few things have to be assumed: one, your church has a permanent building; two, your church facilities are available during the week; and three, you there is available room in your church to facilitate a church reference center. So here’s what I am thinking:

Many churches have some form a church library; however, from my experience many of the libraries look much like your local bookstore which has rows of books on fiction, self-help, pop-theology, best-sellers, etc. with a very small section in the back for “theology” (usually a couple of shelves with the rest for church leadership and administration). Now while it is a shame that most Christian bookstores show such conspicuous contempt for theological works, this does not have to be the case in the local church. And one of the ways to put an emphasis on theological education is to develop a theological reference center that would be available for any church member or teacher who would like to study in greater depth, whether it be for a Sunday School lesson, Bible study, or just personal devotion and development.

Let’s face it. 99.9% of all churches do not have Boyce Centennial Library in their back yards, and it would be very unlikely to see church members invest in theological reference works for their own libraries (assuming they have one). However, a church could dedicate a small room that can be accessed during normal church hours during the week as well as before and after services (Sundays and Wednesdays for example). If your church has interns, they could help oversee the reference center while offering suggestions to those using the materials for the first time.

For starters, I would put into the budget for the following year a certain amount to jump start the theological reference center and make it possible for individuals or families to contribute to the theological education fund of the church. Some of the various reference works one could consider include: OT/NT surveys, dictionaries, encyclopedias, concordances, word studies, commentaries, atlases, Bible handbooks, church history surveys, systematic theologies, books on “biblical theology,” complete works (of various individuals), theological journals, magazine periodicals, Baptist history, and apologetics.

In evangelism, we hear it said that it is better to train someone to fish than for them to merely catch a fish. In the same way, it is better to train church members to think theologically and study intensely than to have them simply regurgitate prefabricated material. If theological education is to be a challenge and commitment for all Christians, then churches ought to consider practical ways of making that possible, and developing, facilitating, and investing in a theological reference center is a great place to start. Perhaps it is here that many church members will be exposed to some of the greatest works on theology that have been relegated to obscurity in our day, at least among Blue Collar Christians.

So in summary, a BCT exhortation to a theological reference center in the local church entails that theological education and the resources needed for further theological inquiry and biblical study be available to church members who have a passion to learn and grow in their faith. Such a center could be a seedbed for future potential leaders, Sunday School teachers, and elders as well as function as an equipping center for mentoring, teaching, and training manned by good Bereans who study to show themselves approved.

Could there be a day in our churches where a young teenage man comes to church after school to spend a couple hours to do an exegetical study on the kingdom of God?

Could there be a day when Sunday School teachers would stay after church on Wednesday nights to study the historical, cultural, and canonical background to next Sunday’s text?

Could there be a day where God’s people feast at the banqueting table of God’s Word throughout the week?

7 thoughts on “Blue Collar Theology 13: Church Reference Center”

  1. I like what you suggest. In the mean time, I wonder if a marked improvement might come simply from moving the tiny theology section from the back of the library to the front. (If nothing else, it communicates a change in emphasis, especially if coupled with a comment from the pulpit.) Also, use JP Moreland’s suggestion to have someone set up a table on Sunday morning to display some of the more useful volumes from the church library.

    Also, while waiting to get our ideal library set up at church those of us with more substantial libraries can make the contents of our libraries public so that our neighbors can borrow books worth reading. (My library is in the process of being cataloged on Library Thing.)

    Finally, if you’re willing to lend out books, it might be worthwhile, if you can afford it, to get books that are useful to more than just you. I recently came into a bit of money and put about $500 into expanding my library including some volumes that I’ll probably never use but will be useful to seminary students and even Sunday school teachers in my church.

  2. I love the idea. I do think though the only way that people would seek to use it is in a situation where God is using a pastor who teaches theological truth to make the people thirst and seek more of the True Word of god. For instance, if your were to implement the resource center in a typical “seeker sensitive” church, the people would be clueless as to what it was. I would love to be a part of a church who has this, free resources while you’re already at church!

    p.s.
    Bama 31
    LSU 28

  3. Chris,

    You’re right. A marked improvement would be to not be embarrassed as a church to embrace biblical truth. Moving the theology section from the abandoned closet to the “storefront window” so to speak would make a statement. The other ideas you mentioned I have scheduled to highlight in upcoming weeks of BCT. LibraryThing is a good tool, but I have unfortunately neglected that thing for a long time. I spent one day adding a couple of bookcases to my account (back in Dec. 05) and have not touched it since! Maybe when I have a little more time I can get that updated.

    Adam,

    I like that fact that you conclude each comment with a postscript of your football predictions. What true Bama fan does not think about Saturday’s game on a Monday evening? 😉

  4. Timmy,

    We are working on just this thing at my church. One of the things that I have suggested is that we also have a number of books dealing with polity and practice. Books dealing with a variety of subjects need to be included (ie. the duty of pastors and deacons; the proper observance and practice of the ordinances; and the use and formation of church covenants, constitutions, and confessions; the proper use and practice of church discipline)

    The church library should not only be a place for theological and devotional contemplation. It must also be a practical research center for the various questions that the entire church faces. If the congregation has a question about what it should do in a given situation, they should be able to send a committee to the Bible and the church library to find the answer. It’s not that the library provides answers not found in Scripture, but it can shine a light on Scripture so that dim eyes can see it clearly.

    And this kind of help can be especially important in those times that the church finds itself without well-studied ministers, or worse, with abusive and ungodly ministers.

    In my mind, this may be the most important function of a church library. Many of the average church members I meet already have pretty sizable libraries dealing with devotional, theological, and biblical topics. Good books on those subjects can be had for a song. Very few have books dealing with polity, though.

  5. Jason,

    That is a great idea. I appreciate you bringing that up. In a future BCT post, I am going to speak of what I call “the big five” – five main categories of theology that are essential to the Church and mission, ecclesiology being one of them.

    You’re right about the kinds of books that are being sold and passed around. If evangelicals or Baptists are what we read, then we would look more like Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, and Rick Warren than Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, and Charles Spurgeon. At some point we have to own up to the fact that we are the culprits behind what’s on the best-seller lists as well as the disappearance of truth in our churches.

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