Jo, Great topic for discussion.
When I was a small group pastor at a previous church, I made it a point of knowing what was in the library to let our groups know. I stumbled upon it by accident when I went to check out the church library and discovered a host of resources. I created a list of valuable resources for our groups that could be found in the library and my office. Then we would talk about them at our leaders meetings as we discussed what groups were studying or wanted to study.
I think it's important for churches to have some place to pool resources and get a list to people. Personally I think a well-run small group ministry knows what each small group is studying at any given time and may even preview material to make sure it is soundly within our Reformed world view.
I preview material regularly -- espec DVD study material -- regularly so I have good suggestions for our groups.
BTW, we don't currently keep small group material in the library since it's too small. I've reserved a big section in my study for those materials which is always accessible. Most of our groups are doing sermon based study at this time.
Our small group committee has asked to become more aware of the work that the Library Ministry is doing.
Do you utilize or coordinate with your church Library to purchase study material? Encourage people to donate their small group material for others to use?
Are you as a small group ministry aware of what is in your library?
If you coordinate with your library how do you do so?
Any feedback would be great!
I am trying to get all our church ministries to be aware of the Church Library as a foundational resource ministry for the whole church congragation.
Jo Vandermey
Providence CRC
Beamsville, Ontario