The Ideal Library is composed of many different resources. It is adaptable to the needs of the pastor and community it serves. It is relevant and based upon foundational works of theology and doctrine. And it stays up with the advances in information technology, video, and software tools.

What does the Ideal Library look like?

The Pastor's Library has developed what we think is the Ideal Pastoral Library, based upon our survey results and the trend of pastors moving towards an electronic based resource system. Obviously, different churches have different financial situations that may allow them to spend more or less on their book budgets than others, but our goal is to show them that no matter the size of their church, the Ideal Library is possible.

First, which resources are most important to the pastor's library? Pastors agree on the following:

• Electronic Books and Software
• Magazine subscriptions
• Journals
• Reference titles
• Popular Christian titles
• Training videos
• Online content subscriptions (i.e. Sermon Illustration Databases)

Budgeting

Budgeting is the next step. In order to equip the Ideal Library, a church needs to establish a budget for books which allows a pastor the freedom to purchase the resources they need. For more on budgeting, visit the Budgeting Resources section of The Pastor's Library.

For the Ideal Library, let's say that you are allotted $100 a month to purchase books and other resources for your pastor's library. (According to our Book Budget-O-Meter, this is a recommended budget for a congregation of 200 people.)

Which resources are priorities?

The great thing about The Pastor's Library is that it offers perspective to how other pastors are spending their budget and intend to in the future. For example, pastors plan to spend somewhere between 20% and 50% of their book budgets on Bible software in the next two years.

With a budget of $100 a month ($1200/yr), pastor's can do many things. Because many pastor's see Bible software as a beneficial addition to a pastoral library, we recommend that a portion of this yearly budget be used to either invest in a new Bible software package or to expand your current program. Many of today's top Bible software producers provide upgrades and add-ins to their product to aid library expansion. Logos Bible Software, the top choice among our surveyed pastors, offers electronic books and collections of resources that allow pastors to purchase additions to their library at any time.

If you don't already own a Bible reference library for your computer, it may be worth evaluating the benefits of saving a month or two of budget and investing in a resource that will pay off for years to come. Many Bible software packages are reasonably priced for the amount of books and resources they include. Logos Bible Software's Leader's Library package is priced at $309.95 and includes over $3,600 in equivalent print books.

The Ideal Library might look something like this:

• Electronic Books and Software - 45%
• Magazine subscriptions - 10%
• Journals - 10%
• Reference titles - 5%
• Popular Christian titles -10%
• Training videos - 10%
• Online content subscriptions - 10%

Because the Bible software on the market includes many important resources that fit in the other areas of the Ideal Library, like Reference titles or Popular Christian titles, we have combined some of these areas to show that Bible software is a comprehensive resource that has the ability to replace extra purchases of resource titles. While Bible software does not completely replace other reference titles in an Ideal Library, it is important to note it's reusability to cover many topics of study.

 

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