Lists of Christian resources? Bookstores or Libraries in the Church?

Q: Do you have a list of recommended Christian resources we can purchase? Does the church have a bookstore?

A: The answer is no...and yes. "No", we don't have a list of books for you to buy, but "Yes" we do have a library where you can find many awesome resources to borrow for free.

Many people have asked us over the years why we don’t have a full-blown bookstore in a church our size and there are a number of very good reasons:

• Over the years, our leadership believed that it was our job to focus on being the church rather than duplicating what was available outside the church. In our case, there was a good Christian bookstore about half a mile down the street that we had no desire to compete with.
• Most bookstores are a source of revenue to help support the general church budget. While we do make copies of sermons available for purchase, we never wanted to turn the church into a business.
• A church library is far less commercial than a bookstore and allows everyone access edifying books and other media, regardless of whether they could afford to buy their own copy of the latest resource. It is a Book of Acts kind of “sharing in common” that flies in the face of an overly commercial society. “What, you mean I can use these for free?” Through the sharing of our materials, it frees up individual families’ financial resources to be used other ways. Instead of everyone buying their own everything, our sharing generously with each other should, and I believe historically has, released resources for ministry and missions purposes. Consumerism is a great enemy of the church, and in tough economic times the people that often need encouraging resources the most are the ones that can afford them the least.
• In 1989 a special anonymous gift was given to the church to establish a “Pastor’s Reference Library” which when added to a collection maintained in our Children’s ministries department, donations, and purchases has grown into a full circulation library for the whole family that currently has 25,348 volumes and 6,587 users.
• Our library has always been available to those who attend our congregation and to the greater Christian community of the Beaverton area. A few years ago, we had a new family come into our library and ask how long they had to be members before they could use the library. We said that they could use the library immediately and were stunned to learn that their former church required at least six months of official membership before materials could be checked out.
• We think that the church library best supports the biblical values of the family of God that meets together here in Beaverton, Oregon.

So, back to your question about a list of recommended resources for purchase…I would recommend that you come in and visit the church library before you buy anything. We can search our collection by Title, Author, Subject, and Series Title for you. Our library team will do our best to connect you with several titles that will be of help to your particular situation and areas of interest. Some are quite gifted in addressing apologetic and evangelistic questions, while others are more than happy to point out books that have meant a lot in their own lives. The library is also a great way to “test-drive” resources before you go out to a bookstore and purchase the ones you want to add to your family libraries! Come on in and check us out!

Church Library Hours are available on our church website: http://www.beavertonfoursquare.org/index.php?nid=53195&s=mn
Our Church Library also has a blog that is found at: http://b4library.blogspot.com/