Winter 2004 | |
RENDEZVOUS | |
Sharing ResourcesDave Simmons, RMBM Executive DirectorEcclesiastes 12:11 says, "The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one Shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body" (NIV). One of the big surprises with the advent of the Internet Age is that the printing of books has not decreased but increased. But what books are people reading? What are Christians reading? Indeed, "Of making books there is no end," and a lot of what is printed in the way of "religious" literature is not worth the paper it is printed on. Of that which is worthy reading and edifying to the soul, either we don't know about it, or if we do, good books are a lot more expensive than they used to be. In the way of sharing resources, how can we expedite sharing our good reading material (that is doctrinally sound) with others so it is affordable and accessible? One answer is a lending library that caters to evangelical Christians and honest seekers after truth. Early in our Republic's history (in l823) Daniel Webster said, "If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be... ." Presently, there is no shortage of the spreading of error and half-truth. As the Holy Spirit in earlier generations illuminated texts of Scripture for godly believers who sought to effectively preach and teach from them, so He works today. How arrogant we are, if we assume that our "enlightened" (?) age has the corner on Scriptural truth! In Drummond, we are in the process of developing a lending library for the Rocky Mountain Bible Mission. To our knowledge, no one else is doing this for over 150 miles in any direction. One of the most treasured and extensive collections in the library is a group of volumes containing some of the best sermons from the fourth century into the twenty-first. They are indexed according to Scripture text. How could these collected sayings of the words of the wise be used by Christians in this region to firmly embed the truth in our lives, particularly if some of these startling and still-fresh insights into Scripture have been given by one and the same Shepherd—our Lord Jesus through His Holy Spirit? Good preaching is sometimes more caught than taught. We need good preaching, because faith still comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Of course, in order to keep lending books, whether they be quality commentaries, Christian novels, or devotional literature, you must be able to retrieve books. And therein may be the rub: how do we develop a workable system? A conscientious volunteer is needed to oversee the lending and retrieval of books. After all the books have been catalogued and eventually listed on the RMBM website, perhaps (with the upfront understanding of the borrowers) books that are overdue could be posted on the website along with the name of the person who still has them. Other good ideas for handling this are invited. Other resources could be shared through a working lending library. For example, if a church has purchased and shown an excellent video series for an Adult Sunday School Class, rather than let the videos collect dust in a church closet for the next few years, why not share it with other churches/individuals through placing it in the lending library? Perhaps a Mission fund could be developed that would provide an annual stipend for quality book purchases for the library, which now stands at between 5,000 and 6,000 volumes (with room for 8-10,000). In this way we could beneficially carry out the sharing of good resources; I believe that would please our Lord. | |
