What’s in your Church Library?

If anyone saw me leaving the church one day with a pizza box, I’m certain they were thinking First Presbyterian offers more than just food for the soul. When I started writing book reviews for our church library, my first assignment for my newletter column Check It Out was contained within a pizza box labeled The Book of Job. It was a multimedia collection from our library of study guides and tapes including: Horizons Bible Study Faith Remains When Understanding Fails; Deep Things Out of Darkness – The Book of Job, Essays and a New English Translation; and a copy of Tried and True: Job for Modern Man.

Although familiar with the Horizons Bible Study having spent two years on the topic of Job for a Women’s Association Bible study, I wanted to check out the collection that has been so thoughtfully put together by our church librarian.

Of particular interest to me was the copy of Tried and True: Job for Modern Man. It is the Book of Job in Today’s English Version of the American Bible Society from 1971. Outside of this being an easily read translation, it is complimented with sketch drawings throughout the text. These drawings evoke the very essence of Job, the grief of man, the desire to call out to God “why”.

The beauty of this piece brought back to mind some favorite works from school, a work of great epic proportion, making this a true piece of literature to be appreciated for its prose and poetry.

The book Deep Things Out of Darkness is a collection of essays and a New English Translation. Although I would rather read forty chapters of Job as opposed to 500 pages of detailed essays on the topic this book has some merit. The first chapter, The Art of Mistranslation, is helpful in iterating the job of a translator versus the job of an interpreter.

And the tapes…are you looking for something while you are on the treadmill or exercise bike?

This multimedia collection can serve a variety of needs to any individual. I would say if you were looking for a small group study or Sunday school piece you might consider looking around your church library to compile a collection here and there by topic. Pull articles from magazines, group together different study guides and tapes, look for commentary, and varying bible versus. Then advertise the addition to your library in your Sunday worship bulletin or your church newsletter.

What special offerings does your church have in its library? Is the library used for study groups often? Do you have a dedicated librarian or church group to oversee the growth of your library?