The problem with preachers as readers is the scenario I just described. They read to preach. They preach to read. Preachers know the best Christian authors, the commentators, and the right book to pull from the library shelf in the crisis of sermon preparation. Few preachers, however, know how to read simply for the enjoyment of reading. Fred Craddock puts this thought clearly: "Nothing is reflected more obviously in the content, mood, and dimensions of a man's sermons than the variety of his own reading. The most valuable literature for preaching is the great book read when the pressure of the next sermon was not there to turn the mind into a homiletical magnet, plucking usable lines from the page."3

Reading to preach dulls the senses of preaching. Reading to enjoy makes the senses of preaching come alive. What becomes personal becomes universal. The things that alert your senses will generally interest your hearers.

Lay people, on the other hand, know how to read. Adults read life lessons on Tuesdays with Morris (Albom). Adults read about The Aspects of Roman History (Alston). They love stories with Chicken Soup. They read about change in the eternal quest for purpose in life. By the way, Who Moved My Cheese (Spencer Johnson)? Adults read to children after a breakfast of Green Eggs and Ham, all the while knowing You're Only Old Once (Dr. Seuss). In essence, your church members know how to read because they read from a variety of sources and for numerous reasons: pleasure, relaxation, personal interests.

The question remains: how might reading improve your preaching? And how does reading impact your preaching? What does variety in reading do to your preaching?

Reading Connects Us with Life

Preachers face the danger of living in an insulated world. The world narrows into sermon preparation, evangelistic visits, returned phone calls, hospital calls, funeral plans, and wedding extravaganzas. The world becomes insulated so as to dismiss the reality of people's lives: dogs that scatter the trash all over the yard, stock markets that head south, road rage, teenage rebellion, angry spouses and furious bosses, little league baseball games and school talent shows. If a preacher's world narrows into preaching as business he or she misses the connection of preaching to the reality in which people live.

Eugene Peterson in Subversive Spirituality encourages preachers to read novels. He says, "Anyone serious about the distinctive conditions of the pastoral calling, story, person, place, will welcome these novelists as friends and spend time in their company."4 Peterson believes that pastors "who neglect to read novels lack seriousness."5 He further states, "World conditions, a steady and relentless drizzle of acid rain, strip us of story, identity and place. But it is the story of salvation to specific people in a particular place that compose the conditions of our work."6 Reading opens up the preacher to the wide world in which people live.

The preacher prays, asks the Holy Spirit to guide, studies the scripture, and prepares the sermon. This sermon preparation misses the hearts of the people upon delivery if it does not understand the conditions in which people live. Reading shines light on these conditions.