I Hate Kindles

by Eddie Pipkin

Nah, just kidding!  Love my Kindle.  In fact, I own two!  It’s a perfect solution for my reading style and preferences.  Of course, I know plenty of people who are also avid readers but don’t like Kindles at all.  Some prefer other e-readers.  Some prefer the nostalgia and heft of good old-fashioned printed and bound pages.  To those whose preferences differ from mine, I say, “Good for you!”  Just keep reading.  Doesn’t matter how you do it.  We are rolling into the summer, a season famous for beach reads, cruise afternoons lazing about, and mountain cabin retreats featuring reading sessions in a hammock.  Seems like a great time for a two-part blog about reading and accessing resources to nurture our spiritual growth: how churches can encourage and facilitate that process, and how most miss that opportunity.  Read on!

The way we read, if we read, is a personal choice based on factors from comfort to cause to ease of access, with a mix of history: the story of how we first fell in love with reading has a powerful hold on our emotions and habits.  There is no one way to read, and in a world of expanded technological options, it is more accurate to say there is no one way to absorb knowledge.  I have friends who mostly listen to audiobooks.  I have friends who mostly watch YouTube videos.  I have friends obsessed with podcasts, and friends who insist on navigating the world through their Reddit feeds.  All of these are valid ways to engage the vast world of ideas (well, maybe not the Reddit feed or any social media feed – but that’s an opinion best expressed in another blog on another day).

Even if we love the old technology, physical books, the technology that traces its story all the way back to Gutenberg and his printing press, the ways in which we access those books is widely varied.  I am a prolific user of the public library, both digital (through the awesome Libby app) and physical (blessed to live in a county that has a magical front door delivery service for books!).  I buy books occasionally through ThriftBooks.  I will sometimes support the local, independent bookstore with an in-person expenditure, or I’ll sometimes even buy a book online from the mega-corporation.

The point of this exposition is to think about the many ways in which we choose to encounter the written word for pleasure and edification and to contrast that variety of options with the often constricted and limited ways that the local church offers us to access resources for spiritual growth.  The suggested choices for spiritual advancement are usually only a few (or a couple) of narrowly defined possibilities, almost always weekly gatherings.  There may be ongoing small groups in traditional Sunday morning slots or sometimes groups meeting at other times, if they happen to be in the mood for recruiting new members, but many times they are not clear on the material they are currently studying / discussing.

It is confounding that the summer is not frequently a time for something new, spiritual-growth-wise, since summer is a season when we often have more free time.  New spiritual growth initiatives often launch in the fall, for instance, which for many families is exactly their busiest time.  The summer opportunity deficit is connected to two factors: the intentionally reduced workload of church staff during these months (arguably a good thing) and the acknowledgement that people are traveling and in goof-off mode (also a good thing), which means they are less likely to buy into a traditional multi-week class model.

So, how about some alternatives to the multi-week class model?

How about a one-day spiritual retreat with a focused emphasis?

How about a more casual gathering with food and discussion, maybe even a little pool time, with a weekly topic or even people sharing what they themselves have been reading and watching and the spiritual growth impacts thereof?  Such gatherings, each as a one-off, would not require a multi-week commitment.  You could come to them as you were available, and although they would include a casual, summer-inspired social element, they would be geared to encourage spiritual growth.

How about some adventure destination excursions that connect the adventure and destination to a mini-seminar on a given spiritual growth topic, perhaps with a guest presenter?  Back in my youth director days, one of my favorite summer activities were our weekly Bible Safaris, where we did day long trips that worked with this strategy.  Picture a day at a spring-fed swimming hole that included a Bible study and discussion on what we mean by “living water.”

And most of all, what about options for independent or loosely guided reading, studying and watching?  What if the local church provided a resource page for people who want to grow on their own time and need guidance for what to read and watch?  What if those people wanted a connection to others who were reading and watching the same material?  Summer book club?  Summer movie club?

The idea of giving people options hinges on two truths:

• People learn and grow in different ways.  You are no doubt familiar with the concept of different learning styles.  We live in an age in which people regularly have access to the style that works best for them (books for readers, YouTube for visual learners, podcasts and audio books for auditory learners, etc.).  Despite that, local churches are still often wed to old-school models for disseminating wisdom.
• People do what they enjoy doing, and they continue doing it if it is pleasurable and productive.  It’s unreasonable to expect people to stick with a style of learning experience that is a struggle for them.  We have traditionally guilted people into sticking with formats that weren’t resonating, because being a disciple means doing X,Y, or Z, and if you aren’t doing those things, you’re letting Team Jesus down.

God created a diverse world to engage the senses and bring us joy and a deeper understanding of what it is to be a human being in his image.  There are many creative ways to get at spiritual truth.  Here are some ideas any local church can adopt:

• A regular list of what the pastor, staff members, and key volunteer leadership are reading, watching, and listening to.
• Links to what other wise thinkers are reading, watching, and listening to.
• A borrowing library.  (This used to be a pretty big thing with local churches, sometimes manifesting as an actual in-church bookstore or book kiosk, but these have seemed to fade out.  That’s a shame.  They are, of course, tedious to manage, but even in a slimmed down, minimal project, they can be influential in getting people to read and engage.)
• A regular posting of ways to “go deeper” on topics you are already exploring through sermon series or small groups, along with interactive discussion options online, virtual, or in-person.
• A curated self-led curriculum for spiritual growth for those who want to pursue their own development at their own pace.  Such a self-guided curriculum could be a little less self-guided when paired with a spiritual mentor or an occasional gathering of like-minded pilgrims.  Similarly, a curated list of resources for people who are interested in exploring specific topics such as grief, healing, how to serve with purpose, generosity, etc. would be very useful.

Next week, we’ll take a closer look at some of these ideas and even discuss what such curated lists might look like and how they might practically function.  Be thinking about what you would recommend to a person who walks up to you and says, “I really want to learn more about following Jesus?  What’s a good book to start with?”

Some leaders worry that directing seekers to look outside the boundaries of their local church walls will lead people away from their community, but these options should work together, ideally enforcing one another.  For me, for instance, a great novel can probe many spiritual ideas deeply in a way that moves my growth forward, but a singular reading experience in my backyard hammock, though it might be emotionally and intellectually stimulating, is no substitute for community and conversation.

Do you and your team maintain a compelling list of options for people to pursue their own independent spiritual growth reading and watching?  Does the prospect seem daunting or exciting to you?  Can you think of drawbacks, or do you have concerns for why this wouldn’t be a good idea?  Why do you think more local churches don’t regularly do this?  Share your thoughts, ideas, and questions in the comments section.