I’ve served as a pastor since 1998, and spent my first 21 years of ministry in church revitalization contexts. These were typically small churches which had faced a split or scandal of some kind, and my role was to help them get back on their feet and re-establish a gospel witness in their community. It was a given that the congregation couldn’t (or wouldn’t) provide a book budget. So, here’s what I’ve done to acquire the resources I’ve needed. A little creativity and legwork can get the job done.

1. Review copies of books. Often, publishers will send pastors or theological students a free copy of a book or two if you write and ask. You must be genuinely considering using it in your congregation in some way. I have the blessing of training men for ministry, so I’m regularly reviewing and implementing different texts; publishers have been quite accommodating here. You may be required to write a brief review for them; be sure to do so faithfully, skillfully, and promptly. Another option here: some academic journals will allow theological students to write book reviews and to keep the book upon completion.
2. Free books/resources by mail through Chapel Library, First Love Publications, and places like that. Grace Gems frequently offers a book 2-3 times per year through their email list. Grace to You (John MacArthur) offer 2-3 books per year through their mailing list, and Ligonier has consistently sent books to pastors as well.
3. Make an academic account with Crossway. They generously offer theological students a few books each year.
4. Books for a small donation, such as Renewing Your Mind or Truth for Life offer regularly. For example, RYM offered R.C. Sproul’s commentaries (on an individual basis, over the course of several months) for a donation of any amount, volumes which will enrich any ministerial library.
5. The used-book market online. Ebay, Abebooks, B&N, and Amazon all sell used theology books for pennies on the dollar. I’ve been able to pick up some fantastic resources for $1-2 + $3-4 shipping. On eBay, they’ll often negotiate pricing as well. My ThD supervisors told me I needed an Oxford English Dictionary for my studies: “it’s indispensable for doing serious scholarship in Puritanism.” Those run over $150 often, but I was able to find a set in good condition for $55 + $22 shipping. I contacted the seller and offered $35 + free shipping. He agreed.
6. Spend time in used book stores, and communicate with the owner as to the sorts of books you need. There’s an amazing used book store a short drive from our town. They offer generous trade-in credit, and our family loves to go browse there. A Christian college is nearby and their students bring in their textbooks like clockwork at the end of each term, so we make a point of visiting then. My practice is to cycle through books: I’m always reading something I plan to give away or trade in for something else. The used book store thus becomes something of an ongoing library arrangement. This way my mind stays fresh, and my library doesn’t stagnate either.
7. Several pastor friends who converted to digital books also elected to dispose of their print library in part or in full. These men knew I have trouble reading on a screen for long periods of time, so they called and offered for me to come browse through their libraries before they sold/donated their books. Put the word out and be patient. The Lord has brought me some much-needed, long-desired volumes in this manner through the years.
8. Create a wishlist on wtsbooks.com, christianbook.com, heritagebooks.com, etc. and be patient. They’ll run a sale or offer a coupon and you can pick up that title which would otherwise be out of reach. WTS and RHB frequently offer excellent savings on “big name” books for the first week or two they’re on the market.
9. The Banner of Truth offers a Christmas sale every year where their books are at least 40% off. Get on their email list now and you won’t miss it. This is an excellent way to pick up sets with price points which are otherwise out of reach. Many of the online book sellers also offer excellent “Black Friday” sales.
10. Create a church account with RHB, The Banner of Truth, or other publishers. RHB and The Banner offer substantial, year-round discounts in this way. Be careful not to abuse this privilege.
11. Borrow the book from a friend and take careful notes on it: outline the argument paragraph-by-paragraph in a notebook, and write up brief chapter summaries, as well as a concise book summary at the end. This approach is how a 1689 pastor friend in Rwanda has been able to grow substantially in his understanding of the precious doctrines of the Word. This method is obviously less common, but as long as you take good care of the book (and return it in a reasonable timeframe—perhaps with a $5 coffee gift card in it!) you’ll be allowed to do it again. Understand that if you damage or lose the book, both the 8^th Commandment and etiquette require you to replace it.
12. Consider e-Sword, the Bible software app (free for Windows; very inexpensive for Mac). This is by far my favorite app, and yes, I have Logos. Through thecom site, you can find quite a collection of commentaries and biblical/theological studies works for e-Sword at no charge, legally. Puritan Library, the Post-Reformation Digital Library, CCEL, and Monergism offer enough ebooks to build an incredible digital ministry library for free.
13. Enjoy the serendipitous providences of God in providing for his shepherds. Once, I was serving an SBC church where a deacon had been quite cruel: screaming at me in my study, throwing things across the room, sweeping his arm across my desk only a few days prior to us having to drive several hours together to attend the State Convention meeting. The morning we left, he told me, “Look at your shelves. You call yourself a teacher of the Bible? I’ll see to it you never have the tools you need. God has forgotten you.” Without realizing I’d somehow registered for their door prize, I won it—a $400 gift card to christianbook.com. The organizer (who had no clue about any of these interactions) had this deacon present it to me in front of the whole assembly, while telling him, “We just want your pastor to know that the Lord knows exactly where he is, and will meet his needs!” Another time, during the early days of planting our church, a Christian website offered generous WTS Books gift cards as a launch incentive simply for directing web traffic their way.

Above all, remember that in God’s word, we have what we need. My friend Matt Bingham and I used to joke that normal pastors compete for the biggest churches, while Reformed pastors compete for the heaviest bookcases. But brothers, that’s not the goal—and it shouldn’t ultimately be your focus. Your people ultimately don’t need to know what Professor X, Pastor Y, or Theologian Z thinks; they need to know what God says in the Scriptures. We are profoundly thankful for gifted men who help us understand the Word, and we are right to listen carefully to what they show us from the Word; but we ultimately look to the Word itself. Read the Bible first, last, and most.

Anyway, if you’re needing to build a ministry library, these are some ideas. I hope they’re helpful!

Reagan Marsh

Reagan Marsh is husband to Kara, daddy to RG and AG, and founding pastor-teacher to Reformation Baptist Church of Dalton, GA. He contributed to The Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia (Eerdmans), provided biographical introduction to J.P. Boyce’s A Brief Catechism of Bible Doctrine (Particular Baptist Heritage Books), coedited in The Works of John Flavel (The Banner of Truth), and writes regularly for The Founders Journal. Reagan authored What to Do After a Breakup: Responding to Pain and Loss Biblically and Authority and Application: An Introduction to Pastoral Biblical Counseling (both with The Greater Heritage), Analytical Outlines of the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession, and Analytical Outlines of Particular Baptist Confessions of Faith (available through Monergism.com), and contributed to Anchored in Truth: Reflections in Biblical Counseling (Soul Doctor Publications). He is coediting The Works of Hercules Collins (forthcoming, H&E), composing a biographical introduction for Hercules Collins’s An Orthodox Catechism (forthcoming, PBHB), and completing Guided Tours in the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession: An Introduction and Survey. A certified biblical counselor, Reagan took MATS and MDiv study at NOBTS and SBTS, and is a ThM candidate at CBTS under Tom Nettles (his thesis, Teaching, Tending, Training: The Pastoral Theology of Hercules Collins, 1646/1647–1702 is forthcoming, Wipf & Stock). He has served in gospel ministry since 1998.