When The Librarian's Away, the Pastor Will Play
Young, developing minds should fall in love with reading. The science behind this demonstrates that the earlier a child gets into the habit of reading for leisure, the better their mind can develop and increase in intelligence and imagination. There are a number of ways that the pastor can be intentional in integrating books into the pastoral scene, including using sermon illustrations based on age-appropriate literature and having a small collection of books in the classroom that spiritually feed all ages. To build community, every couple of weeks the pastor can have a special reading time. Students in similar age groups will come to the school library, where the pastor will have an engaging and uplifting story to read. This story can come from a children’s storybook, a youth devotional or the Bible. The pastor can even get creative and involve the students by inviting them to act out what is being read.