I suspect most of my readers won’t need convincing that ‘leaders are readers’ and that Pastors, whether paid or not, should be devoting some of their time to reading books that encourage their souls and to books that sharpen their minds.
Evidently, those who are paid so that they don’t have to work should be devoting more of their time to reading than those who do have to work jobs in order to provide for their households. People get very het up when you suggest a particular amount of reading—John Stott famously recommended an hour’s reading a day, for example—but I would hope there is broad agreement that reading is part of the ‘job description.’
If you’re ever tempted to chide your paid Pastors that they didn’t give time to x or y thing, I would encourage you to first make sure that they are devoting a significant amount of their week to reading, studying the Bible, and to prayer. If they aren’t, encourage them in that instead of whatever you wanted to chide them about.
But as my title says, my claim isn’t ‘Pastors should be reading,’ but ‘Pastors should read fiction.’ Here we might not find so much agreement. Perhaps we want to devote our limited to reading time to books for ‘work’ of one sort or another. Perhaps we don’t enjoy fiction. Perhaps there is no utility in it. Perhaps we are simply busy and even if we see the value cannot imagine where to fit it in our lives.
Here are 3 reasons that I think its worth devoting time to reading fiction:
1. Fiction makes you a better communicator
Reading good prose, whether by that we mean ‘worthy’ prose that might win some sort of prize, or prose that has stood the test of time, or prose that sells lots of novels because it turns the page—all of which are good by different definitions—will help you think about how to communicate well. All communications work is really storytelling, understanding what makes good stories will make you better at church comms, including your preaching.
I want to say that reading beautiful sentences will help you to write and speak them, but realistically, not all fiction is beautiful and not all pastors aspire to write and speak beautifully. They’re right not to, compelling, arresting, speech is not what we’re all called to, clear communication is what we’re all called to.
2. Fiction helps you understand people
This is true on two levels. The ‘classics’ which are generally more readable than time at school might have made you think, are typically good studies of character. These authors understood people and managed to describe them in ways that help us think about people and character. Living inside a guilty person’s head in Crime and Punishment is both exhausting and illuminating.
On the other hand, if your poison is, for example, a Lee Child page turner, you aren’t going to find the characterisation insightful, but you will find contemplating why you or others enjoy reading Reacher’s exploits can also lead to fruitful insights about people’s character.
3. Fiction attunes you to story
That’s all very worthy, but the most important reason just requires you to be swept up and enjoy something for its own sake. Story matters because the world is a story, and we are all made of stories. Everything you’ve ever encountered runs on stories. That means that reading stories is part of an education in reading the world, but it also means that reading stories is inherently good for you. It will in some fashion prosper your soul.
But I don’t enjoy it?
I think the objections about time and utility are answered in the above, but for many that might just seem like work. The problem is, as I understand it, this: you can’t remember the last time you enjoyed a fiction book, and you wouldn’t know where to start.
If you’ve ever enjoyed a film for anything more than the explosions, there will be fiction you enjoy. If you read widely but not fiction, there will be fiction you enjoy. The problem is that you haven’t yet found a fiction book you like, rather than that you don’t like any.
Ask a friend who is like you. Read something light and pulpy and not at all worthy. Have no shame in reading your fantasy doorstopper or airport novel. The point is that story is good for your soul, not that you have to make it into work. I might think that Austen is interesting enough that anyone would enjoy her—and as a Pastor based in her hometown I feel like I have to argue this—but I wouldn’t give her to a new reader. For a man who doesn’t like fiction, I’d ask the kind of films he enjoys and tend that way: read a spy novel or a war novel or crime novel or whatever it may be. Allow your mind to be caught up with story.
Of course not all books are equal, of course some stories are actively bad for you, and yes it is much easier to buy ‘spicy’ novels than it used to be (as I heard the assistant in a local bookshop describing them recently), but I am assuming that a Pastor isn’t going to jump into Waterstones and buy some Sarah Maas or whatever the latest romantasy hit is.
The benefits do require reflection to be gleaned, but my assumption here is that you’re in a reflective line of work and that staring out of the window is in the job description. Reflect on things, consider them, turn them over. There’s always joy to be found for those who look for it.
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