1. If you have been following along since my first post of Aspire to be an Elder, then you have just finished one chapter of my book. It has been a chapter about the need to read. The Apostle Paul stressed the importance of studying to show yourself approved. Reading is imperative and I hope you have determined to start this habit.

Tomorrow, I will begin to post portions from my chapter on respecting God’s Word. It is important to learn the rules for interpreting the Bible. Rules of language. Rules that respect the writers. If you do not follow them, then you will have inadvertently put yourself in place of the Author of Scripture.

2. If you missed a post or two, you can go directly to my site and find them under a chapter heading. Click on this: aspiretobeanelder.substack.com

3. If you have appreciated the posts and the format of this twice-a-week correspondence, then please think of someone who might also benefit from reading them. It doesn’t matter if they are young men, old men, middle men or women of all those ages.

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4. One more thing. I would like to occasionally add podcasts; short ones designed to answer practical questions on what I’ve written and regarding the challenges of growing older and becoming someone who Jesus could use as an elder in His Church.

   Some questions may pertain to chapters yet to come. That’s OK too. So please ask any questions that come to mind. It will become a source of direction for me.

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Finally, you should learn how to navigate with Roman Numerals. This may sound absurd, however, many of the older books use Roman Numerals as Chapter Headings and when they cite Scripture and other sources. For example the third book I picked up from my end table and opened referenced Scripture references this way: ST MATTHEW v. 26. and Isa. (xvi. 9, 10).

So, if you don’t remember your Roman Numerals from grade school math class, here are the basics. Feel free to copy them and use it as a bookmark.

I = one V=five X=ten L=fifty

C=hundred D=five hundred M=thousand

There are two rules for reading and writing Roman Numerals:

1. Place the small “letter” to the left = subtraction (IV) equals 4.

2. Place the small “letter” to the right = addition (VI) equals 6.

I am not discarding the importance of highly informed translation work of the Scripture text. However, I will likely remain unlearned and indebted to the committees who wrestled over the ancient texts and its grammar to produce our modern translations. I’m sure I would have nothing to add to their work. This indebtedness becomes ever more evident as I read commentaries, written by men I highly respect, who disagree over points of grammar and exegesis in the original texts.

My advice to men and women who want to read and study the Word of God is to spend more time learning your own written language: its vocabulary and grammar. This time spent will assist you when Calvin or Luther or Vitringa are explaining the grammatical reasons why they would translate the original in such and such a way.

Godliness, alongside of proper knowledge of God, His Word, and the world around us, is not dependent upon knowing Greek and Hebrew. There is no magical dust sprinkled over the seminarian during his Greek I, II, III and IV classes. You mustn’t allow such a thing to intimidate you.

After all, too many pastors have been trained in the originals (and by some crafty professor) who now preach in support of egalitarianism, homosexuality, universalism, and the like. And they usually support their position by pointing to some nuance of the original languages as their proof. Again, godliness and proper knowledge do not depend on knowing Greek and Hebrew. Do not be intimidated.

Of course, the previous post contained snippets of the mass of books available to us in the 21^st century church. And a good case can be made for your library to contain: a solid bible dictionary (contains encyclopedic entries related to bible names, places, customs, doctrines, etc.), a reputable bible concordance (which lists biblical words alphabetically and then indicates the passages everywhere the word is found), and maybe a bible times atlas (maps representing the geography during different periods of Scripture’s history often along with the routes taken by various important figures).

On a side note: Online, there is a huge amount of commentaries and books written by godly men of the past. You certainly can avail yourself to them. Usually, you can purchase them cheap or get them free. I’ve got both: Calvin commentaries, and Matthew Henry’s comprehensive commentary as apps on my cell phone. I believe each cost under $5. I also make great use of a $7 Dictionary.com app. Don’t read books without a dictionary close at hand. I read digital books and they are helpful when I’m on-the-go or in bed at night. The problem is I cannot write in them! And I find that good points often get lost in the ether. (I do know it is possible to highlight text and make notes in digital books. I’ve done it some, but I still find it cumbersome.) To resolve the problem I to copy and share verses and/or paragraphs with myself from digital books. I e-mail things to myself for use in sermons and articles I’m writing.

Other books that I would suggest you buy and read upfront are those that have left a mark on Christian history for good. Here are some examples: St. Augustine’s, Confessions and The City of God; Martin Luther’s, Bondage of the Will; John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion; C.H. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David (this is an excellent commentary on all the Psalms) 3 volumes; etc. Of course these show my Protestant roots.

I also think it would be helpful for you to read a few Christian history books. Here are a few: Eusebius’s, The History of the Church; Bruce L. Shelley, Church History in Plain Language; John Foxe’s, Book of Martyrs; etc.

Nevertheless, you have plenty of time to invest your dollars, to read and to study. If you rush it, you will go broke! I am thankful that my church congregation has been willing to budget money each year for me to purchase books for my personal library. However, I did not have that my first twenty years of book buying. Up until then, I would scour thrift stores and used-book stores for deals, and load up my birthday and Christmas wish lists with books I hoped people would get me.

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Today, you can get nearly any book written throughout history. There are print-on-demand companies that will photocopy an old book into a new book binding. They will do this in hardcover or soft. The books don’t look as pretty but you get to read authors that were nearly lost to time. What’s more is that its a real book you can write in.

The one limiting factor on book availability is language. There are some respectable theologians who wrote in German, Dutch, Latin, etc. If these have never been translated into English, then they are out of my reach. Campegius Vitringa (1659-1722) wrote a Commentary on the Book of Isaiah that I wished I could read. It is currently available in German. Darn that Tower of Babel!

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One more thing, the posts are not for young men only. Many subscribers are women; those who share the vision that young men will mature over a lifetime, and be better prepared to lead Christ’s church in the future.

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Below is today’s post. It picks up from where I left off last time.

I say all of that to say this, you will benefit greatly by building a library of books by authors you have learned to trust. Real books. Books you can hold in your hand. Books where you can write in the margins of its pages. Books you can pull off the shelf as a resource.

And if you have built a library of books with notes in the margins, now you’ve got a place where you can go to find the details that lead you to your thinking. You will likely have in your head the gist of the author. You will know which books were the most convincing on a subject. But it’s when you pull it off the shelf that you will be able to see what was happening to you as you read. That is if you are not allergic to writing and underlining in books.

R.J. Rushdoony is a theologian who wrote many books, but it is said that he read about 250 to 300 books per year. And he would write the important thoughts he garnered in the back of each. This allowed him to use his library as a quick reference for his own writing.

Books are tools. They should be used to get your work done. However, you should not read and study as someone who is cold and utilitarian. You should read as someone who wishes to see the ways God builds beauty into all the things He has made. Truth and beauty always walk holding hands. And if a book does not effect a positive change or help buttress a good and godly aspect of life, then take note of its ailment. Do your best to evaluate whether a book has served to enhance God’s good and beautiful kingdom or whether it has gotten in the way of it.

You must prune your library as it grows. As you mature, you will decide that some of the books you’ve read served you better than others. I suggest you keep the best and get rid of the worst. There is only so much room in your home. The library I built is around 1,500 books. This is probably too large, especially if you ask my wife. I have gotten rid of at least half as many along the way. And, no, I have not read them all.

Here’s how my brain works.

First, I’ve got a sense of direction. I can get you anywhere in town and know when I’m heading north, south, east or west, but I will not be able to tell you most of the street names. So if someone says, “There is a new Italian restaurant that just opened.” When I ask them where it is, if they say, “It’s on Beecher Street.” I’m going to ask, “Which one is Beecher Street? What end of town are we talking about? Is it near the Industrial Park? Is it across from O’Leary’s Pub?” and so on.

Some might accuse me of having a lazy mind. I figure, “There’s a bunch going on up there.” Then there’s that detail about Albert Einstein. He didn’t know his phone number, but he knew where he could find it!

I don’t make light of details. Details are important, important to get me to my mental destinations, but I will not easily keep them in my head once I’ve arrived. I consider it my weakness, but it will probably become yours as well as you age. It is kind of a universal thing in the end.

Second, it is true that when I was younger I remembered details a bit more than I do now. I’m 58. Yet, all my life, my mind has been a hound dog mind and not a beaver mind. If you give both a stick each will attack it differently. A beaver tends to concentrate and chew and would likely be a better toe-to-toe street evangelist or debater. Whereas a hound dog is hardly satisfied chewing at one spot. A hound dog mauls the stick with his teeth, and rarely on the same end for long. You will also notice a hound dog stop and stare off (as if day-dreaming) in the middle of his gnawing. I call it reflection. In any case, debating is best done on paper for the hound dog. It allows him to look things up and organize his thoughts. He needs time to thumb through his books and notes. I’ve always admired people with beaver minds, but I’m not one of them.

Jesus Christ has granted us technological favors. As a younger man I travelled a lot. This allowed me much time to listen to books on cassette tape, later on CD. I cannot tell you how many hours of “reading” I did as I drove. I often paused the tape in order to reflect on something I learned. And sometimes, because of distractions, I would need to rewind and replay.

These days people listen to audiobooks digitally. And the amount of books available is exhaustive. Some still cost money, but many are available online at no charge (especially those books written by godly men of previous centuries). And in some cases employers allow employees to listen to things while they work. Only, you should not do so if this hampers the work you get paid to perform.

God has given us many advantages compared to Christians of the past. Yet we stand where we do because of these Christians and the blessings of Christ’s kingdom. Technology has advanced. The amount of resources has increased. What remains is the need for men who have a heart for God and are willing to put their hand to the plow. (Luke 9:62)

When can you get this type of reading done? Maybe you can take ten minutes during lunch or use your fifteen minute afternoon break for a few more pages. If you read only 10-pages per day that becomes 3,650 pages in a year. If the average non-fiction book is around 220 pages, after one year you will have read over 16 books.

A Seminary student in a known Seminary gets assigned up to 125 books over their 3 to 3-1/2 years in training. This averages to around 36 books a year. And these are full-time students who are taught and guided in between.

However, many of them do not have the benefit of learning along the way. Rather, the focus is on condensed knowledge over a short period of time, which is not the approach I’m suggesting by which God fashions elders over decades.

Also, certain days of the week permit for more time to read. Saturdays, alongside of chores and work and errand-running and quality time with wife and kids, may still allow for a good hour or two of study. Sunday, affords everyone a day for rest and worship. God has set aside this day for good purposes and responsible men will take advantage of it. Putting it strictly to the numbers, if we counted extra book reading (not your 40-minutes of devotional reading) just the additional 10-pages on Monday thru Friday plus 20-pages every Saturday and 40-pages on Sundays, your total page amount would become 5,730 pages in a year (give or take based on the calendar year). This now equates to 26 books a year.

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There is a fear of congenital abnormalities (aka. birth defects) when a population is filled with those who marry their first cousins. In the same way, we can become blinded to Scripture’s nuisances when we only read from author’s who we think will agree with us. You will remain healthy if you hear from varying points of view. It is good to hear and read opposing arguments. As Proverbs 18:17 says, “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” Make no mistake. It is likely that your theological commitments will shift and settle differently as you mature.

Also, I warn you that you should not become absorbed in only one subject. Spread around your interest so that you tackle all of life. God desires his office bearers to be well-rounded. We should be able to comment on all of life. This means you should not commit decades to the study of baptism, or heaven, or Sabbath-keeping, or the role of government, or the role relationship of males and females, etc.

I remember sitting under a pastor who felt that “the end times” was his expertise. He considered himself thoroughly studied on it. And it was sewn through the fabric of every sermon. This was unhelpful for the congregation because he was unable to feed us from all of God’s counsel. You cannot be healthy eating only candy! What’s more, I believed his Eschatology was messed up. It did not even amount to a good Snicker’s bar.

In another instance, I knew a young man, who showed promise as a student, who became so tangled up with aspects to do with the regulative principle of worship,¹ that his studies led him away from every church because of their current worship practices. In other words, he removed himself and his wife from worshiping because “no one was doing it as the Lord required.” The couples’ infrequency, to even non-attendance, of worship cut them off from the local church. They soon found themselves on an island and she eventually sought a divorce.

1 The regulative principle of worship held by some Calvinists and Anabaptists that argues God has commanded churches to conduct public worship services using certain distinct elements affirmatively found in scripture, while prohibiting all other elements. For eg. Some oppose the use of musical instruments and/or songs that are non-Psalmody.

Thankfully, God takes time to prepare elders. Indeed, it takes multiple decades of experience walking with Him daily for a man to serve as a resource for others. God will help His future office-bearer to raise children, love a wife, experience hardship, pay his bills, etc.

Martin Luther said, “One learns more of Christ in being married and rearing children than in several lifetimes spent in study in a monastery.”

And so, if the younger man “sticks to his knitting,”¹ as he cares for his household, and grows and reads a little here and a little there as he goes, by the time he is 40 or 50-years old, he will have read and reasoned over many, many books, articles, sermons, and the like. But more importantly he will have lived to apply what he has learned in order to love God better in life’s circumstances. He will have learned, better, how to set his mind on the Spirit instead of his sinful nature.

So read at night once the children are in bed. Spend 30-40 minutes before you and your wife lay your heads down together. Or maybe the morning hour is better. I would refer to this time period as devotional time. I suggest you read and pray: the Bible in front of you with a commentary or two. Ask your pastor – or some other godly man you respect – to suggest a book of the Bible and a couple of good commentaries. (I tend to read more from older commentators of the Protestant persuasion – those dating from one hundred to five hundred years ago, but there are some solid modern commentators as well.)

However, I also believe it is important to read an additional book here and there in the midst of your day. Alongside of the Bible and commentaries, read books on topics that might serve you in your current stage of life. After all, we are learning about God and how to love Him as we go. Or read one that covers a topic of great interest to you at the moment. We learn quicker when we are trying to figure something out. Stand-alone articles on topics can also help you gain some perspective on a subject. However, like most heavy lifting, a whole book or two or more will likely be necessary to become “trained” on a thing.

1 This is a phrase often used by Dr. Gary North. I have always loved the phrase.

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But what about the 21-year old who is willing to read and study, or the 28, 31 or 37-year old for that matter? He wants to learn God’s Word. He wants to know God, himself, and the world around him. How will this one take the necessary time to do the work: to read, to study? After all, a young man’s life is often filled with young man responsibilities.

He is supposed to build a household. Perhaps he is recently married. Maybe he is working his first full-time job. Doubtless, there are bills to pay and commitments to keep. Electricity, phone, gas, grocery, car, taxes, maybe mortgage, student loan, haircuts, clothing, insurance, and supper at home, lawn mowing, garbage collecting, painting, fixing, family commitments, birthday parties, holidays, church attendance, becoming a greeter or coffee-hour preparer, or whatever else might be asked of him and his wife. Add to this mix those great gifts from God called children! One, two, three, and more. Diapers, car-seats, feeding, training, loving, debating, playing referee between them, establishing peace (sometimes between parents and children; sometimes between husband and wife).

So, you ask me, “When am I supposed to find time to read and study? Even though I aspire to be an elder, how can I ever prepare enough to become one if reading and studying is such an important part?” Good questions.

My answer may surprise you. God does not want you to focus on becoming an elder. He wants you to concern yourself with loving Him. He wants you to love Him as a young man with a job, as a husband, as a father, as an employee or business owner, as a citizen, as a church member, as a son and grandson, a neighbor, etc. God wants you to love Him and obey Him right where you are in the world He has made. And you must love Him well. In other words, you must love Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. (Deuteronomy 6:4-6; Mark 12:30)

This is all He wants from you. However, this means that you will have to learn what such love looks like. It means you will need to do some reading and studying to figure it out. And there you go! You are on your way as an elder in training.

So here are three books that left a mark on me in this life. They are not the most important ones, but they are easier to get you started. Thanks for the recommendation to share some book ideas, Franklin!

1. Decision Making and the Will of God, by Gary Friesen. This book helped me NOT to get kooky as I tried to make life decisions. I learned to stick with the Bible and disregard other signs and feelings and “God showed me”-isms.

2. Paradise Restored, by David Chilton. This one helped me to understand that God intends to make all things better over the course of history, not worse.

3. The World Our Home, by Cornelis Van Der Waal. I discovered Van Der Waal about 2-1/2 years ago. He was a Dutch theologian ministering in South Africa. I ate this book up and wondered where Van Der Waal had been all my life. He touched on important topics that the church has abused in the last 50 to 150 years.

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I once spoke to a room full of boys and their dads. It was at a monthly youth group gathering in a church down the street from where I attended. I spoke to them about headship (aka. God giving to men the primary responsibility to care for their homes and the church). I was not well-received for my teaching.

I remember one youth volunteer becoming visibly angry. He was maybe 21 years old. His face was red and steam was escaping from under his collar. People around him were trying to contain him (probably for my sake). Nonetheless, after my presentation, I thought I should probably talk him down – try to diffuse this stick of dynamite.

I did not have much success appeasing him, but the one thing that I remember from our 5-minute conversation was that he took great offense that I said the church should not appoint to office any elders who do not commit to reading and studying. I’m sure I said something that sounded an awful lot like, “You must read, and read, and read some more.”

The young man could not agree LESS, and assured me, “My father was an elder and my grandfather was an elder. And even though I don’t read, I will someday be an elder in this church!”

After the meeting, there were not too many who wanted to discuss my topic anymore with me. And as I walked home from the gathering, I could not help but think, He probably will be an elder. And unfortunately the church will be the worse for his lack of study.

Too many leaders in the Church never crack open a book to read it. Yet often, some of these same leaders fret at how the world is heading in the wrong direction! Older congregations wonder, “Why have so many Christians and churches turned away from Christ to compromise with the world?” And yet how long have we made unstudied men our office-bearers!

Please see my request for input below…

So then, reading a lot of books from what we think to be the cleanest of puddles, with some reading from puddles we may find questionable is necessary for the young man who aspires to be an elder.

But never forget the purpose of it. The goal of much reading is to know God, yourself, and the world around you, in order to live properly. Moses taught, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.” (Deuteronomy. 6:4-6) Jesus considered this love for God the most important command in all of Scripture. (Mark 12:30)

This is why we are students. We want to learn how to love God better. And we want to help others love God better. And this all takes time. But, if you aspire to this, it is a noble cause. (1 Timothy 3:1) It is the heartbeat of one who will someday be an effective elder in Christ’s church.

As Paul told Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” The church needs elders who have learned from its best teachers. And many of those teachers have been long dead, but their books carry on. So read, read, and read some more!

I need some feedback from you. I am sending these out every Monday and Thursday morning, but I want this to be something that you read. So here is my question: Are you more likely to read these, as I have currently sent them, as short (few paragraph) posts? Or do you find think they would be more helpful doubled-up (say eight to ten paragraphs per post)?

If you can comment on this post it with your preference that would be great. Also, please share this Substack with others you think might Aspire to be an Elder.

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This leads me to the next point. I have heard some say, “I only read the Bible!” They think this is the way to keep their thoughts from being contaminated by the cloudy impurity of other men’s “interpretations.”

Yet this is wrongheaded on two fronts. First, a man who trusts himself is leaning on a very weak staff. He either forgets or does not know, the prophet’s warning, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) It is true that God wishes to communicate truth to you and me. However, it is also obvious that we are our own worst enemy when it comes to interpreting truth.

We are mud puddles like the rest of men. We are not merely ill informed but we lie to ourselves. So how can we expect success interpreting the Bible when our own hearts get in the way?

Second, when a man refuses to read other books he is in essence refusing to learn from other teachers. In addition, a younger man is likely less reliable an interpreter than older men who have been around the block a few times. These others can help him read God’s Word more intelligently and honestly.

Look. Books are simply teacher’s thoughts written down. And since the Scripture recommends, there is safety in a multitude of counselors, it would be a mistake to refuse to listen to the voice of our teachers. (Proverbs 11:14; Proverbs 5:13) Certainly, Jesus sat in the midst of the teachers and listened to them and asked them questions. (Luke 2:46) Further, God has given to His Church some to be teachers. (Ephesians 4:11)

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If you are a young man who aspires to someday become an elder in the church community you must read, and read, and read some more. You must read God’s Word. But you also must read other books, books commenting on Scripture, books arguing a point, books from your own theological persuasion, but also from other denominational viewpoints.

Finally, you must remember that no matter what you read, apart from Scripture, it comes polluted. So, as you read, you are required to filter out the clean from the unclean.

Think of it this way. They make water filter kits for people who want to survive out in the wilderness. The filters are pretty high tech. With one you can suck water out of a river, a pond or even a mud puddle and drink it fresh and clean.

Well, in the same way, you should consider every man a mud puddle by how he thinks and what he teaches. No man can offer completely clean water. This means that you, as a student and reader, have to do your best to suck from each mud puddle, as it were, using Scripture as your filter. It stands to reason that some mud puddles are cleaner than others. It will be less work to get water from those.