It’s been said reading is the gathering of intellectual income, while communicating is the spending of it. Or to say it another way, the best communicators are voracious readers. 

I’m not sure about all the science involved, in how these two things- reading and communicating- connect, but in all my years of interacting with some of the best speakers, it’s undeniable the role reading has played in their development as world class communicators. As a teenager, I was in awe of Dr. Tony Evans library. In my early twenties, I used to sit on the floor of Dr. Kenneth Ulmer’s home study, as he sat at his desk almost hidden by stacks of books. As a young church planter, I asked Dr. D.A. Carson how many books he read a year, and after some thought, he quoted me a number in the hundreds. Jackie Hill Perry is one of the best communicators of our generation, and one of the deepest readers. Charles Spurgeon was said to have read six books a week. If I was starting to piece together the connection between deep reading and great speaking, this critique by John Wesley- the founder of the Methodist movement- of a young preacher’s sermon, sent me over the edge: 

“What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear to this day, is want of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety, there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian. O begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not; what is tedious at first, will afterwards be pleasant. Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a petty superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer. Take up your cross and be a Christian altogether. Then will all children of God rejoice (not grieve) over you in particular”- John Wesley.

Ouch! I mean, reading to be a great communicator is one thing, but linking reading with being a great Christian? Not so sure I would take it that far, but excessive statements aside, I hope you get Wesley’s point. If you want to grow as a communicator, you need to read. And like any acquired taste, start out reading things you enjoy. If you’re into fiction, read that. Sports? Go for it. History? Do you. Reading truly is the gathering of intellectual income, while communicating is how we spend it. A failure to read will result in insufficient funds when it’s time to speak. 

Two practical tips when it comes to reading that I have found helpful:

1. Maximize your reading by developing a system to capture key quotes, points and illustrations. Unless you have a photographic memory, it will do you no good to read if you don’t have a system to make the most of what you are consuming for future use. For me, I use the opening blank page of a book where I will write things like, “Page 87, GI (good illustration), prayer.” When I’m teaching on prayer, I will remember the book I read had a good illustration, but I won’t remember where. So I’ll go to the front page, and there it is. And now I’m ready to spend some intellectual income. 

2. Reading keeps us thoughtful. Tim Keller says the internet is the friend of information and the enemy of thought. The easy thing to do is to substitute reading by going to YouTube, or someone’s podcast to listen to what they have to say about the subject you are speaking on. While this may be helpful towards the end of the process, this, and excuse me for being so direct, is lazy. You really have something to say, and the way we develop our thoughts is through a commitment to read. 

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