This autumn Jane and I are going to attend an evening course on Mission and Evangelism, being run by the local diocese. One of the things we got in the pack of preparation materials was a very scholarly looking reading list. Certainly none of the twenty or so works mentioned was available via the (generally excellent) local public library service. One of the perks of being a member of University staff is getting access to the huge academic library resources and so today I rolled down to the library of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, which was the location where the first tome was to be found.

It turns out that even they only had three of them but the librarian was very helpful; he not only brought me the books they had on their shelves but also noted where in Oxford I could find all the others in other parts of the University library network. Three scholarly works was enough to keep me going for one day (and I had already bought a copy of Good News and Good Works by Ronald Sider on my Kindle, which I am part way through); good brain exercise and hopefully useful preparation for the course.