My Lion Handbook of the Bible is one of the first 'grown-up' books I remember owning as a younger teen. I used it as a one-stop reference for the bits of the Bible I couldn't understand and its colour photos helped me get a feel for the places that Jesus walked and talked.
Over the decades Lion has continued to produce fantastic resources for children. Just this Christmas my 10-year-old daughter has read the Lion Comic Book Hero Bible cover to cover – twice. It brought the stories alive for her, and she even began preaching to me about the similarities between the births of Jesus and Isaac, or between the two Josephs of the Bible. With her Bible literacy doubling in a month, I have been feeding her more books to fuel her newfound excitement.
So it was with great sadness that I heard about Lion's current situation. Of course it is not the only publisher to face troubles. It was not long ago that IVP found financial stability and a home through being purchased by SPCK, and prior to that STL also ended up in financial disaster. It is always disconcerting to lose the fantastic resources and trusted suppliers we have come to know and love, but for the companies there is even more at stake as they have to face laying off staff and reconsidering how they continue on with their mission.
Some have said the decline in the book industry is inevitable, especially when there are so many online and digital resources available. Companies do go out of business regularly, and sometimes market forces can be a way of telling us that something's usefulness has come to an end. Back in the 1980's there was a boom in sales of Christian fitness videos – thankfully that market seems to have died. I would not have responded well to an urgent call for Christians to support that ministry. So why is it different with books?
The word on the street is that Christians have given up reading. I don't think that is true. I think that thanks to online digital provision, just like everyone else Christians are continuing to read. They're just reading in different ways. We read Facebook posts, online articles (like this one) and e-letters. Many of us have swapped a print Bible for a digital one on our phones. This change is totally understandable. There is however still a demand for books and I believe this appetite can still be increased. Let me offer four reasons why investing in increasing our reading is important – not just for your dedicated publishers but for your soul.
1. You are what you eat
It's become accepted wisdom that what we feed our bodies affects our overall health and wellbeing. The Bible is pretty clear that what we feed our souls and minds shapes our spirits. Paul commands us to focus our minds on whatever is lovely and good (Philippians 4:8). He also told us to sow into our spiritual natures (Galatians 6:7-8). Most of us are consuming huge amounts of content, whether it's Netflix, YouTube videos or iPlayer.
Think about the last box set you digested and consider not just the effect in terms of hours spent on it, but also the effect on on our minds and hearts. Everything we watch and read schools us in our thinking through the values we are (often subconsciously) imbibing. I love movies and have watched more than my fair share of box sets. They can be an important form of leisure and relaxation as well as help us stay informed of the narratives that are shaping our culture. But I know that I need to offset and balance out that content with spiritual reading. And so I read books and scripture that will help me to take a step back and ask questions about what I am watching. I want Jesus the Messiah, not a media mogul, to set the affections of my heart. I want his agenda paramount in my life, not just the shifting cultural values of our society. Alongside our media diet, we must be committed to consuming literature that will feed and shape our inner being.
2. The changes we are experiencing in our culture mean we need to know our faith better than ever
We are living through unprecedented amounts of change in our culture. Our world, our nation, our communities, our churches and our families have huge challenges and opportunities available to us. We need to know our faith inside and out so we can know what we need hold fast to and what we can be flexible about. We cannot afford the laziness of just doing what has always been done because so many things have changed. No longer do we record our sermons onto cassette tape, or project our songs via a transparent acetate and an OHP. Similarly, we need to keep up-to-date with Christian thinking and practice to discover how to keep on delivering the Church's unchanging call to serve the mission of God in ways that make best sense in today's context and investing in reading is vital for this.
3. We need all the help we can get
I want to live my life for God as best as I can. As my children grow up I realise my time with them is like sand rushing out of an hourglass and I try to make the most of every opportunity. In the work I do trying to find foster carers and adoptive parents I strive to the best of my ability because I want to help as many children as possible achieve the best outcomes available. In my preaching and teaching I want to teach the Bible as clearly and effectively as I can. So I am hungry for ideas, guidance and wisdom. By the grace of God he has gifted women and men throughout history and around the world with great insight and eloquence and they have written their learning and experience down so I don't have to make mistakes on my own. We are so blessed that through reading we can surround ourselves with the best wisdom and insights and encouragement to help us whatever our circumstances, ministry or gifts, why would we neglect to invest in such fantastic resources.
4. Being bilingual is an advantage
I love that my family is relatively digitally literate. My teens can navigate their way round the internet in ways I can only dream of. They know how to make the most of every gadget in the house sometimes before I have even learned the basics of turning it on. I appreciate that for them growing up in our digitally connected world these are important skills to have in place. However for all the benefits of digital literacy I still want my children and myself for that matter to equally develop the skill of having our minds challenged and expanded through sustained engagement with long form writing – appreciating the beauty of a novel, or the arguments developed in a non-fiction book. This is not because one is better than other, but rather because together a book-based and a digital literacy in tandem gives them the best skills for life. Malcolm Gladwell argues that as a culture, "people are experience-rich and theory-poor". Because of this we get caught up and swept along in the flow of media, and often don't have the thought space to be able to understand, evaluate and discern what is happening to us.
Great Christian literature can help us stop and reflect and apply the Bible to the situations we are in. It can help us be rich both in experience and in theory/theology. It's like the wonderful gift that cross-cultural families give their children – the ability to think and speak in two languages. As Christians we need to learn how to think in the language of the kingdom and in the language of our world. Great reading can help us do this and it will help us make a bigger and more effective impact for Christ where we are.
According to the booksellers I speak with, two of the big challenges to Christian reading are appetite and discovery. I hope that the arguments above may have whetted or increased your appetite, but how can we discover the best Christian books in such a crowded marketplace?
The best way by far is through personal recommendation. Take note of the books your pastors and small group leaders, your friends, family and colleagues are reading. And if you are a pastor, small group leader, friend, colleague and family member, make sure you pass on your recommendations to others. In this way we can not only kick-start again that healthy habit of reading but deepen our conversations with people as we discuss and debate the books we love.
Developing an appetite and the helping Christians discover great books was why I started the Books for Life initiative. Christian leaders who are making an impact in the world have some fantastic recommendations that may well help you in your reading. I have a regular stream of recommendations of books that people you will have heard of love and appreciate. You can check out all the episodes here.
Dr Krish Kandiah is founding director of Home for Good a writer, consultant, activist and executive producer of Books for Life.
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