How to make reading books part of your discipleship to Jesus

Reading for pleasure is at an all-time low in the United Kingdom.

In response, the Department for Education and National Literacy Trust have christened 2026 the “National Year of Reading”, with a motto of “Go All In”. 

The encouragement is to see reading as “a powerful plug-in to the things you already love—a great way to go deeper into your existing passions” – such as baking, gaming, sports, art and music. It’s a good way to think about the diverse ways people can participate in reading, and I hope it does spur on an increase in reading across the country. 

Reading is a powerful formative tool; it’s something that can shape us in ways that nothing else can. Here’s how we as Christians can harness the power of reading to grow in our love for God and his creation.  

Reading for Empathy 

Romans 12:2 encourages us to “be transformed by the renewing of your minds”, and while scripture is the primary means of engaging in that transformation, reading is one of the best possible tools we have for shaping our minds.

I’m not claiming reading is more virtuous than other leisure activities or the only way to shape your imagination. There’s power in the well-crafted storytelling of quality films and TV shows, for example. Reading, however, offers a different experience as it involves more active participation.

When you watch a TV programme, you’re drawn into the experiences of the characters. Reading takes that to a different level, giving you far more access to a character’s inner thoughts and feelings. That means that by reading you can metaphorically step into someone else’s shoes, seeing the world from their eyes, gaining a new perspective. You practice becoming someone else for a while, and that practice builds empathy for others.  

So that I can have the widest possible experience of different perspectives, in my own reading, I aim for a diversity of authors—diversity of culture, time period, genre, gender, and topic. The make up of scripture itself suggests that diversity in what we read is a good thing. The Bible’s 66 books are written by at least 40 different authors. They span thousands of years of history and while the authors are mostly Jewish and from relatively close geographical regions, there are cultural differences among them. Scripture also contains a variety of genres: narrative, legal texts, poetry, letters, apocalypses. Each of these genres helps us learn about God from different perspectives and engages our minds and imaginations in different ways. 

Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12 that we are all different parts of the body and contribute in different ways. This does mean, however, that we don’t always understand each other and can dismiss the perspectives of other “body parts”. Reading can help us embody the stories of others so we can better understand where they’re coming from and notice blindspots in our own perspective.

Reading for Discipline  

Reading builds patience and discipline. While I can passively watch hours of TV or reels on my phone without engaging in any significant way, reading requires me to engage with my whole attention. And, reading takes longer, requiring more commitment. Compare The Lord of the Rings: It takes some patience to watch all extended edition films (11.4 hours). It takes significantly more investment to read the whole series (over 38 hours). The same is true for any book turned into a movie. And while I love watching cinematic adaptations, I don’t inhabit the story in quite the same way as when I’m reading the book over the days, sometimes months, it takes to finish. I live with that story for much longer.  

It’s not just fiction that forms us. Reading non-fiction can help us develop more critical thinking and increase our attention spans. The short-form nature of online media means that we get soundbites and summaries quickly, but we rarely receive nuanced or in-depth analysis. Our attention jumps from one video to the next, switching topics quickly and usually not giving sustained time for reflection. With a book, however, you have to spend time following the argument, and the author can take much more space to provide evidence, context, and information. This gives room for us to reflect on the claims being made and to take in information at a slower pace so we can consider it more carefully. And, again, it means we spend much more time with the topic—days or months—rather than a few minutes. 

It takes discipline to give this sort of time and attention to a book when we’re in a fast-moving, media-driven world. But building this discipline and attention helps us to pay better attention to the ways God is moving that are not attention-grabbing or quick. 

Reading for Virtue Formation 

I’ve recently been reading CS Lewis’s Voyage of the Dawn Treader with my daughter. Besides Reepicheep, the most memorable character from that book is of course Eustace Clarence Scrubbs, the boy who almost deserves that name. As Lewis describes Eustace, he writes of the sorts of books that Eustace reads: technical, informative books, not stories. Then, spoiler alert, Eustace can’t recognise the danger signs that a dragon is near or what to do because he’s not read the very stories that might have prepared him for that. Eustace may have read, but his type of reading didn’t actually positively form his character.  

I’m an academic and my day job is publishing Christian non-fiction. I am absolutely not against reading informative books—in fact I wish we would do more of it! But we need to recognise the formative value of stories and imagination alongside information. After all, fairy tales communicate information indirectly, but they also capture the imagination in a way that purely informative books do not. Lewis writes, “Since it is so likely that [children] will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker”. Reading fiction with my children helps me to ask them questions about what bravery looks like or how we might do the right thing even when it’s hard.  

Fiction helps me to live out Christian virtues better too. During a difficult season, I read Beartown by Fredrik Backman. It’s a heavy book (so approach with caution), but the writing is beautiful and the characters captivating. The most striking parts were the actions and thoughts of a particular character who experienced grave injustice. In the face of that, she acted with courage and honesty, but also mercy and grace. As I journeyed with this character, I was able to imagine what it might look like in my life to face such a thing with the same attitude. The book helped me start to move on from my own situation in a way that I hadn’t been able to imagine possible before reading it. It may not have been an explicitly Christian story, but it communicated the goodness of Christian virtues like forgiveness, justice, and grace in a way that was compelling.  

Practical steps

Reading can shape us in so many ways, but it’s difficult to get started if we’re not doing it regularly. Here’s a few suggestions for how we can try reading as discipleship in our churches: 

• Start a book club. Pick a monthly/termly book and create discussion questions about the characters and themes. Many people in our churches are already reading—figure out what people are interested in and get them connected with others for discussion. Think about how that leisure activity can turn into formative conversations.  

• Set a personal reading goal. Make it achievable but stretching. If you don’t already read much, a goal can help you grow in discipline. If you need some encouragement, see if a friend will join in reading alongside you.  

• Curate a reading list for sermon series. Think about the themes that will come up in the series and what books can spur further conversation. Include both fiction and non-fiction, recognising that those will shape us in different ways. Ask book lovers in your congregation for suggestions!

• Have a “big summer read” where the whole church has the opportunity to read the same book together. Find ways to encourage discussion. That could be through setting up formal groups to discuss, or sending out emails throughout the summer with discussion questions.  See also the Big Church Read resources.

• Run a seminar on reading as a Christian - or ask a publisher to come run a session and bookstall!.  

• Read novels with your children. Talk together about how the characters are acting, what their challenges are, how we might feel in that situation, and how God can help us with it.  

Reading can be a significant way that we allow our minds to be renewed and transformed. So, in this National Year of Reading, let’s “go all in” on the benefits reading can bring to us as Christians.  

Read Premier Christianity’s latest cover story: ‘100 books that changed the church’