Like many other congregations, our church has a library. It has a comfortable room with a large conference table and walls lined with bookshelves. There is evidence that in the past someone has tried to keep the books organized on the shelves in a way to make individual titles easy to find. There is a printout of a database of the inventory of the library that someone made, although I cannot find the database on the church’s computer system. There are stacks of books that are not shelved and a checkout system that isn’t completely clear. The only records of books checked out in the last couple of years show a single user of the library. I have spoken with a couple of members of the congregation who didn’t know where the library was located in the building.

I suppose it is the problem of libraries everywhere. There are people who see libraries as places where books are curated. They can understand the need to have books and will put significant effort into acquiring books, but the books tend to stay in the library. The purpose of a library, in my opinion, is circulation. How do we get the books out of the library and into the hands of the people?

The library roughly falls under the authority of the Faith Formation Board in the structure of the church. The board relies on volunteers to help organize the library. The pandemic has meant that many volunteers have not been able to come to the church to do the physical work of organizing and shelving books.

In the meantime, they have called an Interim Ministers of Faith Formation who love books. My first reaction to the library was to check around the church to see what funds might be available for acquisition of new books. I found that the church actually had credit at a local bookstore. I fell into the role of facilitating an adult group in the church that studies books. I discovered another book club in the church. I began asking around about what books the members were reading. In most cases I found that the church library does not have copies of the books that the groups are reading. In the case of the group I facilitate, I arranged for copies of the books we read to be donated to the library. I checked with the Mission and Justice Board about their projects and discovered an interest in having the library curate books on specific justice topics such as global warming, climate justice, and gender identity.

I don’t want to take over the church library, but I do have some passion about helping the library discover how it can best serve the people of the church.

Acquisition alone, however, will not serve our library well. We have limited storage space. Already much of the children’s library is in a locked room in the church basement. We circulate the materials through a set of shelves of children’s books at the back of the sanctuary and keep the books rotating so that children who attend worship with their parents have access to books that have some connection to the seasons of the church and the themes of worship.

The children’s idea led to an idea to put up short-term displays in the church narthex of books for adults. We have added the idea of soliciting short reviews and book recommendations from members. Inspired by a local bookstore that has displays of the “picks” of the staff of the store, we are envisioning a display shelf with mini reviews of books and recommendations from church members.

All of this involves work and it involves a degree of coordination. I’m not sure that running the church library is the highest priority for my time as a church staff person. Last night as I was thinking about the church library, I had a “when I retire” moment, thinking that it would be a fun project to tackle as a volunteer after I am no longer working for the church as an employee. It might not be the kind of involvement that is welcomed by the church staff who follow us, however.


I’m sure that part of my attitude about libraries comes from having a son who is a community librarian with whom I talk regularly about his work. Community libraries are so much more than buildings full of books. They are major service providers in the community. In many communities libraries are the only point of access to the Internet available to those who do not have homes. Community libraries provide meeting spaces, community gatherings, and a host of educational services.

The love of libraries, however, didn’t originate with our son. In fact, there is solid evidence that his love of libraries was influenced by his parents. My first college work study job was in the college library and having access to the library was instrumental in my college education. When we reached graduate school with access to multiple libraries including the gigantic and wonderful Regenstein Library of the University of Chicago, with its 4.5 million books in a seven-story building, I was enchanted.

We collected books for all of our married life. When the time came for us to move from South Dakota, the distribution of our library was one of the hardest tasks. A little less than one quarter of the books we had on our shelves in South Dakota have made the move to our new home. There have been books that i have missed. In one case, I bought a copy of a book that I had previously given away.

The obvious answer to our downsized book collection is frequenting the libraries in our community. We have library cards to two local libraries. Our church library could be an additional resource for people like us. It is, however, a resource only if the books are used. It only works if people check out the books and read them.

Whether or not I planned it, the church library has become a product of passion for me. We will be meeting a church member at a local bookstore to discuss enhancing the collection soon. New volumes are being added to the library. New ideas are being shared to increase awareness and circulation.

The next step is to recognize passion for books in others and to identify partners in re-thinking our library. I won’t run out of things to do anytime in the foreseeable future.