Why You Should Start a Church Book Club

Everybody can be a reader. Some people just need a bit of encouragement! If you're a bookworm with a passion for discussing and sharing books, we encourage you to start a book club in your Church and see how God can use it. Over the last year the little Church Book Club we run has grown in numbers and in excitement. It's been beautiful to see people who hadn't read consistently in years rediscover a love for reading!

We run things a little differently to your typical Book Club — there's no monthly assigned reading. Instead of all reading the same book and studying it together, anyone can read whatever they like. We then come together to share with each other what we've been reading. We have such an eclectic range of readers -- romance novels, spiritual memoirs, history books, contemporary fiction, classic literature, fantasy adventures, graphic novels... all sorts.

While there is immense value in studying one book in-depth, we didn't want to the fear of the dreaded homework assignment to keep people from enjoying a good book. Now that our Book Club is thriving, we did introduce a group-read: we all read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Such a classic and rich book, with plenty to chew on for group discussions. While it was certainly a challenge for some to get through, reading and discussing this book together allowed us to glean a lot out of it. It's a great pick if you want to try out a book for group discussion. 

If you want to share your love of reading, you should definitely consider starting a Church Book Club! If you're not sure where to start, just keep it simple: we meet monthly in our living room, with cups of tea or coffee, and books to swap. It's nothing fancy, but God has used it to create a thriving reading life amongst our members.

And if you need a bit of reading inspiration, you can always come along to Evermore Books and pick up something new!