Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers - by Shane Claiborne & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove (Paperback)

About the Book

Activists Claiborne and 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.

Book Synopsis

Activists 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.

Review Quotes

"Claiborne and Wilson-Hartgrove have slipped the bonds of the ordinary and leapt the chasm of the customary. They have stood at brightly burning bushes that for most of us just won't catch fire. This book is a small invocation which, once prayed, calls for those who thought they knew the far country to see it for the first time. The far country is not so far as we supposed: it lies vivid and visible betwen our 'our Fathers' and our 'thy will be dones.'"

"God always raises up new and courageous voices when the church is tempted to forget its own gospel. Here are two of those voices--and two who have been made into the answer to our own fervent prayers."

"Jonathan and Shane--along with the many friends they quote and tell stories about in these pages--are on a journey together toward a bold and beautiful way of living that makes people more truly alive. As one trying hard to stay that same course, I am more than grateful to them for sharing in such clear and practical language what they have been learning along the way about prayer, about community, and about keeping faith with God and our brothers and sisters with their backs against the wall."

"This thoughtful treatise offers a concise taste of Bible study, prayer, and myriad church teachers."

"We in the church are blessed by the imaginations of Claiborne, Wilson-Hartgrove, and their communities."

"Who learns more fully about the importance of prayer than folks living in Christian community and engaged in social activism? The authors of this wonderful little book share graciously and truthfully from the spiritual wisdom they have gathered."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Prayer is always a difficult topic for Christians to wrap their heads around. I'd recommend the book if you like Shane or Jonathan, or more generally if you are passionate in areas of social justice and struggle to connect that with your prayer life.

Readers will never see prayer or community in quite the same way again.

About the Author

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.