The Circle

A few of us participated in this excellent webinar last Thursday (April 17, 2025). Let’s share highlights of what we learned during this webinar through the comments. 

Thank you, Jo Monohan, moderator of this webinar, for inviting us to participate.

The Pacific Northwest Association of Church Libraries just published the Lamplighter, our newsletter.

This edition contains lots of books reviews, an announcement about our upcoming 2025 conference and news from all our chapters.  Please enjoy and kno

Yesterday was the annual Youth Ministers Preaching Day across the world according our youth minister, David Reed, who preached a great sermon! He made a great point that made me think about our new year ahead for libraries. The title of his sermon wa

Ruthe Turner sent this email to their friends over the weekend. She let us include us in her Friends. Interesting to read how they are handling their difficult situation.

Dear Friends,

We wanted to let you know that your library items have been renew

I wanted to share a new resource that has a been a big hit for our church library:  Grace Bags.  These bags contain books and manipulatives for families to checkout and use during service or to take home. For example, the Daniel bag contains 3 books,

Hello everyone, 

I'm new here and I've love to hear about the libraries you manage. Who do you serve (your church or the public?) and by extension, what do you collect (Christian materials only, or non-objectionable materials by any authors)? When are

During the April 2023 Disciple Leaders Network conference, we learned a lot about the importance of relationships in our churches today. Dr. Shelly Melia, Director of the Children's Ministry Masters Program, Dallas Baptist University, did an outstand

Here's a video tour of the Central Baptist Church, Decatur, AL with an interview by Eva Nell and her pastor, Rob Jackson. Lots of ideas here! Also a great time to remember our friend and leader, Eva Nell Hunter.

The final reason stated by Lavender and Flack is conservation of our Baptist heritage. If your denomination is not Baptist, replace Baptist with the name of your denomination. Since 1934 when this book was published, Southern Baptists had a program t

Why Have a Church Library? Flake’s 6th Reason

Let’s continue our discussion starters stemming from the list of reasons found in Arthur Flake and Leona Lavender’s book. Their 6^th reason is Church Worker’s Need for Special Books. Let’s start a discussi

Their 5^th reason is A General Lack of Available Books.They admit that “there are more books in the world than any person could possibly read in ten lifetimes.” But they point out the lack of library services in many places in the United States during

Back in the 1920s and many years to follow, our two authors would never have thought of digital books. As you read what they wrote about the power of the printed page, include ebooks in all of their points. 

Direct quote from The Church Library Manua

 It is a question, it seems, only needed for churches without libraries. I believe every church I been involved with has had some kind of library made useful to others in the congregational. Some of the libraries are those of the pastor(s), others ar

Flake’s third reason was “A Need for Reading Guidance.” What are we doing today to meet that need? If you missed the introduction to this discussion, click here.

Flake and Lavender quoted a question that is still true for readers today: "Do you know

Flake’s first reason was the fact that special libraries were found in most institutions in his day because they cannot trust other sources for its library sevices. These institutions include universities, colleges, high schools, hospitals, prisons,

I am the librarian for my church library and also the president of the local Friends of the Library.  Our Big Book Sale is coming up soon.  If you are near southeast Alabama (Dothan), you will want to come to this sale!  It will be a great opportunit

I'm in the process of revitalizing our small library, it needs some loving tlc!  One of our Sunday School teachers asked if I would be sure to add some books for preschool ages that she can use and read during Sunday School.  I agreed, but didn't rea

A common issue for church librarians these days seems to be the challenges some of us face with the leaders of our churches. While I am not seeing any increase in the numbers of churches closing their libraries, I am seeing an increase in the number

Yesterday my sister, Diane Moody, shared with me a note she received from a reader. God used this note to nudge her to keep on writing her current book. That note gave her the confidence she needed to keep going.

As we talked, it dawned on me that yo