Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

This topic has 15 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 8 months ago by butterflylake.

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August 27, 2015 at 10:42 pm
butterflylake
Participant
My husband and I have just recently been put in charge of our church library. The library is a nice size room, but sadly underused by our congregation. I’d like to see resources that appeal to a variety of ages, but thought I’d start by asking here – what books, authors, audio/video would you want in your church library? Fiction or non-fiction. Many of the books in the children/youth sections are from years (decades) ago. Many of those are great and worth keeping, but we need to bring in more recent materials too.
Looking forward to your ideas!
TIA
Vanessa
August 27, 2015 at 11:03 pm
Kelley
Participant
Mark Gungor for the adults.
August 28, 2015 at 8:42 am
HollyS
Participant
I like Lisa Terkeurst’s books. It seems like Christian fiction for women was most often checked out in our previous church’s library. They had tons of Amish fiction and it was often checked out.
For kids, I think some classics like The Bronze Bow or Narnia would be good choices. There are so few good Christian books in our public libraries! The True Story of Noah’s Ark or Life in the Great Ice Age would be good as well. Paul Maier has some nice picture books called The First Christmas, The First Easter, The First Christians.
The problem I see with Church libraries is how few people take advantage of them! My DC and some of the older ladies were the only ones I ever saw checking out books. 🙁 That could be partly because the materials were so dated…They never added new children’s books and most of their videos were still VHS. Our church did make an announcement in the bulletins whenever they added new books and I thought that was a good idea.
August 28, 2015 at 9:18 am
Linabean
Participant
Books by Max Lucado, Janette Oak, and Karen Kingsbury were often checked out of our Church Library.
August 31, 2015 at 8:24 pm
butterflylake
Participant
Thanks for the ideas. We’ll be diving in this week. I found that several boxes of books, DVDs, etc have been donated and not sorted or entered into the system. Likely many are not worth keeping, but we still need to deal with them.
Looking forward to bringing this library up to date and making it a place full of needed resources.
August 31, 2015 at 9:04 pm
RobinP
Participant
Also good are missionary bios such as those in the Trailblazers and YWAM series.
September 1, 2015 at 9:21 pm
lnosborn
Participant
For adults: Changes That Heal by Dr. Henry Cloud. I have lots of books and when I have fleeting thoughts of giving them all away (you book lovers know how it is!) that is one I want to hold onto. For a church, I think it is especially important to have/grow into healthy relationships, and this book really helped me deal with some issues I had from my past and grow. I actually went to a regular family doctor several years ago because I couldn’t figure out what was wrong – I felt depressed and thought maybe I needed a blood test, that my iron was low. Well, the doc actually prescribed me this book! Can you imagine that? 8 years later and my husband is now reading it, and realizing many things about himself. He’s always had trust issues with God and reading the Bible, but this is helping him make sense of things and really directing him towards God. I probably sound like this is a cure-all book or something, but I enjoy lots of books. This is just one that would be at the top of my list if I was in charge of a church library.
How big is your church? There are so many books I would add to a library if I had the funds! For children, the Child’s Story Bible by Vos and The Jesus Storybook Bible by Lloyd-Jones are both well-loved around here. And the Christian Liberty Nature readers are good for science and animal lovers.
September 1, 2015 at 9:58 pm
Kristen
Participant
Some of my favorite authors that would go well in a church library are Lauraine Snelling, Janette Oake and Francine Rivers. Also the book; In His Steps.
For kids, books about missionaries would be great. I would search the books for sale at CBD for more ideas.
September 2, 2015 at 7:31 am
Karen
Participant
Our church library has the usual assortment of meaty fiction and fluffy fiction; the usual assortment of “mom” books; and some older children’s books. I esp. like the older children’s books because they are not available at our town library.
Also, our library has good Christian family movies (as well as some that are just for mom and dad or older teens) — we really appreciate those because we don’t have cable or Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime or any of those kinds of services. So being able to borrow the occasional movie to watch as a family is just fun (and cheaper than buying!).
September 2, 2015 at 7:57 am
RobinP
Participant
What about recordings of conferences? AIG videos, etc. I’m our church’s librarian and audio resources are checked out a lot because people can listen in the car.
September 2, 2015 at 10:18 am
Katie
Participant
Here’s some suggestions for kids:
Sammy and His Shepherd, Susan Hunt
Long Story Short, Marty Machowski
Old Story New, Marty Machowski
The Gospel Story Bible, Marty Machowski
The Big Picture Story Bible, David Helm
The Child’s Story Bible, Catherine Vos
The Donkey Who Carried a King, RC Sproul
The Prince’s Poison Cup, RC Sproul
The Priest With Dirty Clothes, RC Sproul
The King Without a Shadow, RC Sproul
Children’s Stories, DL Moody
Big Thoughts for Little People, Kenneth Taylor
Lightlings, RC Sproul
God’s Word (Making Him Known), Sally Michael
Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrim’s Progress, Oliver Hunkin
September 2, 2015 at 12:28 pm
Katie
Participant
You Can Change, Tim Chester
50 People Every Christian Should Know, Warren Wiersbe
Safe in the Arms of God, John MacArthur
The Excellent Wife, Martha Peace
Love that Lasts: When Marriage Meets Grace, Gary and Betsy Ricucci
The Peacemaker, Ken Sande
Becoming a Titus 2 Woman, Martha Peace
To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson, Courtney Anderson
My Heart in His Hands: Ann Judson of Burma, Sharon James
Dorie: The Girl Who Nobody Loved, Erwin W Lutzer and Doris Vanstone
Hinds Feet on High Places, Hannah Hurnard
Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother, Carolyn Mahaney
What Did You Expect: Redeeming the Realities of Marriage, Paul David Tripp
Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, Paul David Tripp
God’s Priorities for Today’s Women, Lisa Hughes
Humility: True Greatness, CJ Mahaney
The Exemplary Husband, Stuart Scott
Fool’s Gold?: Discerning Truth in an Age of Error, John MacArthur
A Tale of Two Sons, John MacArthur
Right Thinking in a World Gone Wrong, John MacArthur
The Truth War, John MacArthur
Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God: What Every Christian Husband Needs to Know, CJ Mahaney
Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper
The Gospel According to Jesus, John MacArthur
Making Sense of Who God Is, Wayne Grudem (This has 7 parts)
Lies Women Believe, Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Let me know if you have any questions about any of these…these are just a few off of our book shelves. 😉

DVDs
What Did you Expect?, Parenting, Forever, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands (all available on Paul David Tripp website)
The Priest With Dirty Clothes, The Attributes of God (by Steve Lawson), Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (by RC Sproul) (all available at Ligonier
September 2, 2015 at 12:32 pm
Katie
Participant
I would add How to Study the Bible by Richard Mayhue. I’ve tried to share this list all morning and I am having trouble, but I wanted to include this book as well.
September 2, 2015 at 2:29 pm
Sue
Participant
I would suggest the Millers series of children’s books by Mildred A. Martin, such as Wisdom and the Millers, Prudence and the Millers, Storytime with the Millers, Missionary Stories with the Millers…..
You could let people know that these are great family read-alouds for character building and good readers for the younger kids.
September 2, 2015 at 2:31 pm
HollyS
Participant
Another suggestion…Are you a member of Library and Ed? They have very inexpensive books and cater to churches, libraries, schools, and homeschoolers. I’ve ordered lots of books and DVDs from them. They also have audio CDs.