I was sharing with a friend that now I have plenty of time to dream and write vision statements. In the LXX (Septuagint) the book of Proverbs in Greek, it is said that “a man with vision and skilled in his work will serve before kings and he will not serve slothful men” (Prov 22:29). When I watched a car club in West Malaysia visiting an Orang Asli village to set up a library I was moved to write vision statement no. 6. That all local churches to have a library to encourage members to read and that all pastors be granted a book allowance of RM100.00 per month so that they could buy and read at least one book every month.
Perhaps the last Sunday of the month the pastor could share for about 15 mins about what he had read or the contents of the book within a worship setting. How are we going to equip our pastors with knowledge and understanding if they don’t read or even if they want to read they don’t have the resources to buy books? All elders and deacons who are involved in the pulpit ministry must also be encouraged to read, at least one solid book quarterly. During my time at TTC Singapore, I only published one essay by an American Seminary and I wrote little because I spent most of my time reading books especially new books that came into the library every week. On average I took out 10 books a week from the library and probably read at least 5 or 6 books, not including those necessary for my lectures. I must have read on average 200 books a year making it more than 1,000 books in my 6-year sojourn in Singapore. I would not like to exaggerate and the estimate is on the conservative side. So what about pastors in Sabah and Malaysia? Part of the problem with shallow preaching is the lack of knowledge, the lack of in-depth Bible knowledge and the lack of general knowledge, all things theological and secular.
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