I think that it is fair to say that since Christians are people of the book Christians should be people of books. This is not to say every Christian must be reading a mountain of books every year. Rather, Christians should be people who read steadily—whether quickly or slowly—and widely. We should continually renew our mind with both Scripture and written materials that will help us to better understand Scripture (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23).

At the Irish Baptist College we recognise that not everyone is a reader. For this reason we have established an initiative entitled Let’s Read with the aim of encouraging Christians to read trustworthy books in manageable chunks. Periodically we will invite you to read through a book over a period of months and during that time we will post a monthly reflection on the blog to encourage further contemplation on what is being read.

Our next book is Small Preaching: 25 Little Things You Can Do Now to Become a Better Preacher by Jonathan T. Pennington. While this title might naturally attract pastors and those who preach in our churches, it is also hoped that others who regularly teach God’s Word—such as Sunday School teachers, Bible Class leaders, Youth Fellowship leaders, Home Group hosts and many others—will join in and reflect on how to better communicate the message of Scripture. On the final Monday of each month a reflection will be posted on this blog.

For ease of reference here is the proposed schedule:

September: Read Chapters 1–7, pp.9–35 (reflection posted on Monday 27^th September)

October: Read Chapters 8–14, pp. 39–65 (reflection posted on Monday 25^th October)

November: Read Chapters 15–25, pp. 69–113 (reflection posted on Monday 29^th November)

Participants are also invited to share striking quotes or personal reflections from the book on social media using #LetsRead to connect with each other.

Happy Reading!