Leaders Are Readers

 I love to read. Reading is a habit that I developed while in prison. Of course I was reading all the wrong books then and it wasn't until the last three years of my incarceration that I spent my time reading the Word of God and Christian books. This is a discipline that I maintain today and I encourage all believers to read. Read the Word of God voraciously and faithfully, yes, and other Christian literature, too. Too often believers get caught up in the idea that they must be original and what they teach about Christ must be original and the end result is strange and confusing doctrine. However what we teach and believe about God does not originate with us. What we believe and teach about Christ comes from the Word of God and in the history of the Church has been explained more eloquently, articulately and effectively than we can. This is why I so ardently encourage reading the works of these godly men that God has given to His Church. When reading these folks you soon learn things that you have missed and were wrong about, concerning the Word of God, but also that these men learned from other followers of Christ before them. They learned things of the Word of God from them and explained further or they are simply explaining, in their own words, the same concept they learned from the Word of God and has been taught by others before them. In other words they were not attempting to be original but were stimulated by the writings of others to think about Scriptural truths and this resulted in them further communicating, in their own words, what they learned about God.

Reading stimulates the mind. It not only informs and educates but it also provokes, challenges, corrects and encourages the saints. One of the problems in the Church is that people do not like to think. They would rather be told what to believe without thinking it through for themselves or even be challenged. People just don't like to exercise their minds. If, perchance, they do, it is usually with all the wrong things. Hence, I am a firm believer in training young people to read solid Christian literature. Especially for men that will go on to enter the pulpit. They must be readers. They must have their minds stimulated and guided as they teach the Word of God. Better to develop this discipline before it is too late. Many a pastors have convinced themselves that their traditions are Scriptural. They simply will not allow themselves to be challenged on a given doctrine. For some it seems to be too late. No matter how un-biblical their position is they have been convinced and remain convinced what they believe is simply from a study of the Word of God alone and there is no reasoning with them to re-think their position. They just simply will not read what other godly men, indwelt with the same Spirit of God, have to say. This is what should be prevented in young men entering the ministry. The following are some quotes form Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of the best preachers in the history of the Church. These quotes come from his book: Preaching And Preachers (I don't think there is a better book on preaching).

"Time must be found for reading, and we turn now to the more intellectual type of reading. The first is theology. There is no greater mistake than to think that you finish with theology when you leave a seminary. The preacher should continue to read theology as long as he is alive. The more he reads the better and there are many authors and systems to be studied. I have known men in the ministry, and men in various other walks of life who stop reading when they finish their training. They think they have acquired all they need; they have their lecture notes, and nothing further is necessary. The result is that they vegetate and become quite useless. Keep on reading; and read the big works" (p.177).


"The preacher has thus to choose his reading judiciously, not only for his own soul but also that he may be able to help others, not only directly but also in their reading. Much harm is often done by advising people to read the wrong type of book-you can make them worse instead of better. If a man is already slightly melancholic, and tends to morbidity and introspection, and you give him a book to read that is mainly designed to produce conviction of sin and to awaken and alarm, you may well drive him mad. He does not need that, he needs encouragement and positive instruction at that point; and vice versa" (p. 176).


"Then I come back again to what I emphasised when considering the training of the preacher-the importance of reading Church history. That must never be regarded as just a subject to be studied for examination purposes; it is of much greater value to the preacher than to the student. And he needs to be reminded constantly of the great facts" (p. 177).


"Next in order I would put apologetic reading. I mean by that that there are fashions in theology and philosophy; they come and go. It is the business of the preacher to be acquainted with all this, so he will have to read some of these books. He cannot read them all because there are too many of them, far too many; but he will have to read some of them" (p. 178).


"All this is necessary to help the preacher to make an assessment of the people who are going to listen to him. He must know something about their background and their outlook, and what they are thinking, and what they are reading, and in the influences that are being brought to bear upon them. People in their innocence and ignorance are still ready to listen to plausible speakers and to believe anything they read in a newspaper or popular journal, and it is our business to help them and protect them. We are shepherds and we are pastors, and we look after and care for these people who have been committed to our charge. It is our business therefore to equip ourselves for that great task" (p. 178).

"Read theology, As I say, but always balance it, not only with Church history but with biographies and the more devotional type of reading. Let me explain why this is so important. You are preparing yourself, remember, and the danger for the intellectual type of man, if he is only reading theology or philosophy, is to become puffed up. He persuades himself  that he has a perfect system; there is no problem, there is no difficulty. But he will soon discover that there are problems and difficulties; and if he wants to avoid shipwreck, the best thing he can do when he feels that he knows all, and is elated and tempted to intellectual pride, is to pick up say the Journals of George Whitefield" (p. 178-179).

"What is the purpose of reading? I reiterate that the object of all this reading is not primarily to get ideas for preaching... I maintain that  this is not the primary object of reading. What then is its main purpose and function? It is to provide information;but still more important, it is because it is the best general stimulus. What the preacher always needs is stimulus. In a sense one should not go to books for ideas; the business of books is to make one think" (p. 181).


By all means read! Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando




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