BUILDING A LIBRARY
Some of the sections you might have on your bookshelves:
(1) Biography: the lives of men and women of God. Read these to see what God did
through consecrated people. See what they were given and what they accomplished in
their time. Learn from their mistakes and victories. Challenge yourself by what they
were doing at your age.
(2) Study: You will need the best books you can afford that will help you understand
what God says in His word. Lexicons, dictionaries, a thesaurus, atlases, concordances
are all significant investments that you will use for the rest of your life. Bibles,
translations and paraphrases of different kinds will give you wider insight into God’s
Word.
(3) Research: Encyclopedias and reference sets. See if you can pick up a second-hand
set cheaply; perhaps you will come across some that are slightly damaged or out-of-date.
(4) Apologetics: Clarify the Gospel by “evidence that demands a verdict”. You will meet
many people who want or need answers to some of the most basic questions they have
about God. Build your library with books that meet this need.
(5) Sets: As you grow in Jesus you will come across the writings of some Christians that
have particular appeal to you and your ministry. Collect all they wrote whenever you
can. We all have our heroes. If you read what they wrote, some of it will rub off on you.
(6) Technical and cultural: You will also collect books and studies particular to the
work you do and the world you live in. To learn to be the best you can in a world that
needs Jesus, keep your eye out for books that can help in this area.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
• The websites abebooks.com and thriftbooks.com is the best place to find used,
rare, or out-of-print books.
• Amazon.com and Christianbooks.com are both excellent places to find new and
in-print books.
• Also, Bookfinder.com is a great search engine for finding books not confined to
one particular site.
• You can find incredible, easy to read biographies on the YWAM Website, they
are great for you and for your new small group friends!