This article, which appeared in today’s Modesto (CA) Bee newspaper, demonstrates how a church can effectively use its library to attract non-church users, and minister to the larger community.
By AMY WHITE
BEE STAFF WRITER
It’s Wednesday morning and the Khachadourian family is on its usual routine, stopping to browse at the Big Valley Grace Community Church Branch Library. Seven-year-old Dante scans the shelves for reading material. Three-year-old Malachai flips through a picture book.
The Modesto family has come to the library every Wednesday for about five years. There were two boys in the family when they started. Now there are four, with a fifth on the way.
Mother Debra Khachadourian, who home-schools, learned about the library through a presentation made at a women’s Bible study. The family, which attends Modesto’s Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church, hasn’t looked elsewhere since.
“We are blessed by it,” said Khachadourian, 32. “We greatly appreciate it. It’s a treasure, like finding a treasure cove, when we come here.”
The library — on the campus of Modesto’s Big Valley Grace Community Church — opened 10 years ago. Located in an old house that was the former homestead on the property now owned by the church, the library started with about 2,000 items.
Today, it has 20,000 books, DVDs, videos, audiotapes and home-school curriculums in circulation and available to the public. An additional 2,000 items will be added once the library moves to a bigger building this spring.
The library, which is run by volunteers (some affiliated with Big Valley, some not), is open about 11 hours a week. Resources are used by families, adults, teens and home-schoolers. Home-schooling parents can check out a curriculum for a year.
Not all items are Christian; many are simply wholesome movies and books such as “Anne of Green Gables,” “Old Yeller” and “Pride and Prejudice.” Children can watch movies and play with toys while other family members browse.
“It’s a safe place where you don’t have to worry about what’s out there on the shelf,” said Denise Parvis, who co-leads the library with Sandy Popkis, who is also a library assistant at the Stanislaus County library.
Parvis estimated that about 40 percent of her library patrons don’t attend Big Valley Grace Community Church. “We’ve gotten a reputation outside of our church, even with the public library,” Parvis said. “When they ask for things that maybe the public library doesn’t have very much of, they will refer to us.”
Some of the most popular items are Christian fiction. “That stuff flies off the shelf,” Parvis said. The library has a standing order for the most popular Christian fiction authors for adults and young readers. Authors include Jan Karon (author of the “Mitford” series), Lynn N. Austin, Karen Kingsbury and Dee Henderson for adults, and Melody Carlson, Lissa Halls Johnson and Nancy Rue for young readers.
Nonfiction offerings range from current best-sellers, Bible studies, concordances, commentaries and religious studies resources to biographies, creation science texts and devotionals.
Popular items include the DVD documentary “Beyond the Gates of Splendor (whose subject, the 1956 killings of five missionaries by Waodani tribesman in Ecuador, is the basis for the new feature film “End of the Spear,”); the book “Let’s Roll,” by Lisa Beamer, wife of Todd Beamer, who died aboard Flight 93 in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks; and “In the Presence of My Enemies,” in which Gracia Burnham tells of her captivity by a Muslim extremist group in the Philippines.
Anything related to “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “The Lord of the Rings” has been hard to keep on the shelf, Parvis said.
‘Appropriate’ is subjective
Organizers understand that even patrons who seek wholesome material will have different views of what is appropriate. The library has some movies that are rated PG and PG-13, and fiction books are divided between adult and young readers. Some items have stickers warning that material may be objectionable to some readers or viewers.
For instance, PG or PG-13 movies considered to contain moral messages — among them “Remember the Titans” and “Father of the Bride” — may be checked out with a booklet of ideas “on how to use that as an issue to talk to teens about serious spiritual matters,” Parvis said.
It’s nice to know that the library’s materials are previewed and wholesome, Khachadourian said. Her boys — ranging in age from 1 to 7 — like reading storybooks and learning about space, creation, dinosaurs, fossils and lions. Son Dante has served as an intern at the library, shelving and finding books.
Khachadourian checks out audio books for her husband to listen to during commutes; they both like to watch informational videos, such as on spiritual ways to strengthen marriage and family. “They have the greatest supply of creation material I’ve found in this area,” she added.
Emily Bauman, 73, of Modesto, enjoys Christian fiction. A member of Old German Baptist Brethren, she has been coming to the library for about two years. “You know when you get (a book) here that it will be good, not something you don’t want to read,” she said.
Bauman often previews books for the library at Brethren Heritage School, but had read her way through its books and authors, she said. The Big Valley Grace library has a greater selection and introduces her to new authors.
Library organizers believe theirs is the only church lending library of its size in the area. “A lot of people, especially people who are new to this area, they will walk in and go into one room and say, ‘You have a lot of (items), wow,’ and will starting asking if you have this or that,” Parvis said. “They get pretty excited.”
Patrons are thankful for the library’s friendly and attentive volunteers, they said. The library has about 25 active volunteers. One volunteer, Pam Bowman, is studying for a master’s degree in library science. Many Big Valley library volunteers use their experience at the library, which uses the Dewey decimal system, to work at other libraries, Parvis said.
Growth plans
When the library moves to its larger location, it will have its resources listed online so that people can look in advance if an item is available or checked out. With the move, the library will go from about 800 square feet to up to 3,000 square feet, Parvis said. Organizers hope to have book clubs and story hours at the new site.
The library has grown from 100 patrons its first month to more than 3,000 now. About 900 people actively check out materials these days; the library checked out more than 27,000 items last year.
Knowledge of the library tends to spread by word of mouth, Parvis said. Big Valley hasn’t done any outside promotion, and only minimal promotion within the church, she said.
Still, it has flourished. “It’s just so amazing when you just let go and do what (God) wants you to do and not get in the way of how blessed you’ll be,” said Parvis, who was tapped to lead the library more than 10 years ago. “This is not one of those efforts you are able to do on your own. We really believe it’s God’s library.”
Big Valley Grace Branch Library hours are: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays, 11 a.m. to noon Tuesdays, 8 to 11:15 a.m. and 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to12:30 p.m. Fridays and 5 to 5:45 p.m. Saturdays. It is at 4040 Tully Road. For information, call 544-0813 or see www.bvg.org.
