Midweek Edition: Ultra-brief reviews.
Ultra-brief Reviews of
The 24-7 Prayer Manual:
Anyone, Anywhere Can Learn to Pray Like Never Before.
Pete Greig and David Blackwell.
Paperback: David C. Cook, 2009.
Buy now: [ ChristianBook.com ]
Learn to Study the Bible.
Andy Deane.
Paperback: Xulon Press, 2009.
Buy now: [ Amazon.com ]
By Chris Smith.
The 24-7 Prayer Manual by Pete Greig, is a helpful how-to guide for churches and para-church groups that want to start a round-the-clock prayer ministry. Since I first heard about the 24-7 prayer movement several years ago, I have been intrigued by the idea. This book is a good introduction to the why’s (briefly) and the how’s (primarily) of 24-7 prayer. This movement is a powerful, embodied reminder of our call to be a people formed by “praying without ceasing.” However, from this manual, I never really got a clear sense of the end of 24-7 prayer, and there were some hints of an instrumentalism (praying in order to “get”) , which is just as dangerous as the similar instrumental to fasting that Scot McKnight denounces in his most recent book. If you are unfamiliar with 24-7 prayer, you should check out this book or Greig’s earlier work Red Moon Rising: How 24-7 Prayer is Awakening a Generation, but if you are wanting to start a 24-7 prayer room, this book is what you will need to read.
Andy Deane’s Learn to Study the Bible offers 40 different techniques “to help you discover, apply, and enjoy God’s word.” Deane presents these methods in clear simple terms with which most readers could connect. However, this book is very much about personal Bible study, and leaves little room for the church’s corporate reading and interpretation of the Scriptures, which as Stanley Hauerwas and others have noted is the primary way in which Scripture was intended to be read. If you want to read and study the Bible on your own and are having trouble getting started, this is a fine book for you. But please, please understand that personal Bible study should be secondary to reading scripture in community with God’s people.
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