Taking Inventory 9.5.2024

    We have made the turn at Labor Day. It is time to kick off the Fall season and to get a head start on next year. Temperatures, at least here on the banks of the mighty Wabash, have moderated a bit this week and our Fall calendar is getting cluttered here at Church. 

    It is an opportunity for each of us to look forward as well as reflecting and reviewing the past several months. Summer has been busy. Camp and extra activities take time to plan and execute. Our church had a float in the Grayville Days parade. We had to get together to fabricate it. Then came the hour(s) waiting and actually “marching” in the parade hurling candy at bystanders and offering the perfunctory “parade wave.” Fireworks lit the sky Sunday evening and then Monday, I was here behind my desk in my study.

    I added an item to my to-do list for this week. Review Reading Plan and current “to read” list. Actually, it’s not so much a “list” as it is a pile here in my study and another pile next to my chair at home. Anyway, this is a part of what needs to be done this month in preparation for compiling and composing my Sermon Calendar when October comes around. I need to take inventory of what I have done and what still needs to be done this year so that I can fully engage in my preaching and teaching both to end this year and to invest the time needed to prepare for next year. 

This week I will be taking inventory of my reading. Like most of you I read many, many books throughout the year. I tend to not “keep a list” of what I am currently reading for preaching and teaching--what I call “work reading.”  Such studies and commentaries on current preaching are just a part of the prep time. In addition to that reading I try to read at least one book a week, often more. These books tend to inform and enrich my preaching even when there is not a direct correlation to current exegetical projects. 

I begin several research and writing projects throughout the year. One research project began with one focus and merged with another project that began with a completely (at the onset) different focus. That folder contains 234 items, mostly PDFs and journal articles, and it is now one new, larger “project”. I know that I’ve already read some of the tens because I cleverly marked them with a “red” tag. Even with artificial intelligence it sometimes helps to just keep things simple. 

This is the “stack” of books behind me. It is kind of a mixed bag of theology, technology, and sociology. Most of these books won’t take too long to read. Others will require notes or carful marginalia. As I said, there is a similar pile at home. It is a real pile. There are also books which I have “staged” at various times over the last couple of years (And various parts of the house). If you only have books in your library that you have already read, what will you do when you crave print and you have nothing in the queue?

    I’d like to clear the decks of these items as soon as possible but there is a full schedule of preaching and teaching materials which have priority. I begin teaching Old Testament Survey next week so I have been spending as much time as I can in that literature. I am preaching from the book of Hebrews so that means continuing exegetical, study, and commentary work. There is always more to read. There is always more to understand.  I’ve already done some preliminary survey work for 2025 so that I can begin the process of preparing an inventory of the tools that I will need next year. One year tends to bleed into the next which is why a clear review and inventory is essential from time to time. 

    And you may, perhaps, ask “why?” Because it is essential to have the right tool. Ongoing reading and study are necessary for framing and contextualizing the truth of scripture. To preach well each of us must understand both the Word of God and the world in which we live and serve. We shouldn’t pander to felt needs, nor should we be blithely ignorant of what people encounter. We should be able to anticipate questions people may have about their faith and the issues of the day which infiltrate and weaken the witness of the Church. Why read? Why take inventory? Because this is serious business for serious people and leaving it to chance is bad stewardship. What He asks of stewards? That we be faithful.