Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals
"Prayer is not so much about convincing God to do what we want God to do as it is about convincing ourselves to do what God wants us to do." --from the IntroductionActivists Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove show how prayer and action must go together. Their exposition of key Bible passages provides concrete examples of how a life of prayer fuels social engagement and the work of justice. Phrases like "give us this day our daily bread" and "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" take on new meaning when applied to feeding the hungry or advocating for international debt relief.If you hope to see God change society, you must be an ordinary radical who prays--and then is ready to become the answer to your own prayers.
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Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove (M.Div., Duke Divinity School) is director of the School of Conversion in Durham, North Carolina, where he is a member of the Rutba House new monastic community. His books include Free to Be Bound, Inhabiting the Church and New Monasticism.
Shane Claiborne is a preacher, writer and lover of Jesus. He is a graduate of Eastern University, where he studied sociology and youth ministry. Claiborne is a cofounder of The Simple Way and serves on the board of the Christian Community Development Association. He is the author of The Irresistible Revolution and coauthor of Jesus for President.
"This thoughtful treatise offers a concise taste of Bible study, prayer, and myriad church teachers."--Angelina Conti, Friends Journal, January 2010
"We in the church are blessed by the imaginations of Claiborne, Wilson-Hartgrove, and their communities."--Gavin Dluehosh, The Covenant Companion, February 2010
Claiborne enlists help from his long-time friend Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove to address how prayer and activism are related. Take a small group through this book as you prepare for a summer mission opportunity.--Paul Berry, YouthWorker Journal, May/June 2009
Claiborne and Wilson-Hartgrove, "radical" Christians who see the danger of burnout and spiritual erosion when those who tend to the marginalized fail to pursue the divine romance that is prayer. The authors use three NT prayers to move the reader outside ordinary assumptions about prayer and challenge us to a deeper relationship with Christ.--Steven Todd, YouthWorker Journal, March/April 2009
It's both rare and refreshing to discover a new perspective on prayer. But if anyone can provide that perspective, it's Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. Recommended for anyone interested in social justice, intentional communitites and the new monastics, as well as Christians who have grown beyond books on how to pray and want to learn instead how to live out the prayers they're already praying.--Marcia Ford, Faithful Reader (faithfulreader.com), March 2009
Like these men's other books, it is another awakening (and sometimes embarrassing) reminder that the contemporary American church is not the radical social force it was called to be.--Rachel Pater, Sarcastic Lutheran (sarcasticluteran.typepad.com), March 23, 2009
Readers will never see prayer or community in quite the same way again.--Publisher's Weekly, September 15, 2008
"Not everyone will agree with every particular detail of biblical interpretation in this book by Claiborne and Wilson-Hartgrove, but no one can deny the truth of their main argument: God is calling each and all of us to be eager agents fulfilling His purposes in the world! This book compels us passionately to ask, in the power of the Holy Spirit, 'How am I "putting legs on my prayers"?' This is a tested book and a necessary one!"--Marva J. Dawn, teaching fellow in Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, and author of Unfettered Hope, Joy in Divine Wisdom and My Soul Waits
"Jonathan and Shane, contemplative activists, humble prophets, and sincere lovers of humanity and God, provoke a new way of understanding prayer. Avoiding the tendency to reduce prayer to 'three easy steps' or trite formulas, Jonathan and Shane press the integrity of our prayer lives by challenging us to live into our prayerfulness. Rather than suggesting prayer as wishful thinking or hopefulness wrapped around memorized bedtime recitations, Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers recovers the essence of truly prayerful life--it's the recovery of a sacrificial embodiment of our prayers. God's answer to our prayers might be as close, or as far away, as our willingness to be available as part of the solution. Jonathan and Shane make this simple truth accessible and available, inspiring us to an authentic prayer life--a life lived to answer prayers."--Christopher L. Heuertz, international director, Word Made Flesh, and author of Simple Spirituality: Learning to See God in a Broken World
