Praying with the Church: Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today

In Praying with the Church: Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today, Scot McKnight makes the case that evangelicals and other Christians do themselves a disservice when they limit praying to heartfelt, spontaneous prayers and do not use prayers written by Christians of the past. McKnight, a professor of Religious Studies at North Park University, argues in favor of what he calls "praying with the church": using prayer books and set times for prayer services (called in some traditions "the daily office"). Sandwiched between introductory and concluding chapters are nine chapters organized into two sections: "Jesus and Daily Rhythms of Prayer," which examines the tradition of set prayers as practiced in Old Testament and New Testament times, and "The Church and Daily Rhythms of Prayer," which provides overviews of contemporary prayer books. The heart of the book lies in Chapters 4-6: Jewish daily prayers at the time of Jesus (Chapter 4), Jesus's and early Christians' daily prayers (Chapter 5), and an introduction to contemporary prayer books (Chapter 6). Here, McKnight discusses Scriptures that point to set regimens of daily prayers, often done in community; suggests a pattern for contemporary Christian daily prayers; and introduces readers to general features of prayer books. The last chapter provides the foundation for examining prayer books from four different Christian traditions in succeeding chapters (in order: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and interdenominational). These topics demonstrate a corporate focus to Praying with the Church that both is refreshing and that moves the book beyond the realm of how to improve your prayer life, although the book will unquestionably benefit you in that regard as well. McKnight displays a commendable desire to make readers aware of riches found in each of the three major streams of Christianity (i.e., Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant). Furthermore, he sees the value of prayer books not primarily in an individual devotional sense, but as a way of participating in the communion of saints and strengthening the Church. Praying with the Church is aided by McKnight's fine, breezy writing style, which is often punctuated with humor that may have been field tested in his classroom. This easy read has considerable depth, perhaps most seen in how McKnight successfully reaches two different audiences. While Praying with the Church seems largely intended for evangelicals and other Christians uncomfortable with prayer books, it also provides helpful, even critical background for those of us who already use prayer books and are convinced of their value. As what amounts to an apologetic for fixed, liturgical prayers, Praying with the Church is excellent.

I was already practicing fixed hour prayer via the internet (Daily Office of the Episcopal Church at www.missionstclare.com) when I ran across this book. It makes a wonderful distinction between spontaneous prayers and those historical prayers of the Church. It also validated something that I was already doing. Since reading it, I have expanded my prayer life to include "Christian Prayer" which is a simplified version of the Roman Catholic Liturgy of the Hours. There is something exceedingly comforting in routinely praying with the church. Even though I am sitting in my rocking chair at home, I know that there are others who are reading the same passages and praying the same prayers with me. It's awesome. By the way, I'm Presbyterian. Any spiritual practice that enhances my personal walk with my Lord is fine. I'm not prejudiced against any denomination. After all, not everyone likes classical music. Every single person has to find their own path to God. Fixed hour prayer can help.

I have recently become very interested in liturgy and the rhythm of praying the daily office. Since I am a Baptist and not from a liturgical background, I have found the Book of Common Prayer and other prayer books very confusing and frustrating. This is a great introduction to the "big" prayer books and a great discussion on why we ought to pray the daily office (AKA Divine Hours). Excellent resource that dispels a lot of misinformation about liturgical prayers free church folk like myself have been taught.

I was privileged enough to receive a free copy of this book thanks to the generousity of Paraclete Press in a promotion on Scot McKnight's blog. I just finished reading the book and I must say that the book was perfect at doing what it wanted to do, namely: introducing low-church Christians such as myself to the richness and depth of fixed-hour prayer. For me, the best part of the book was McKnight's obvious but startling revelation that Jesus would have found himself within the Jewish fixed-hour prayer tradition. There is no stronger argument for fixed-hour prayer than the fact that our Lord Himself was most certainly a practitioner of it and following Him would of course mean following Him in this practice. Again, this would be obvious to many, but for those raised outside of liturgical traditions such as myself, this is a fresh insight. Secondly, I very much appreciated McKnight's continual reminder that this is not a replacement for spontaneous prayer, but a wellspring for it. I currently find my prayer life devoid of much depth or meaning (or consistency for that matter) and the ability to pray along with some of the giants of the Church makes me not have to feel like praying in order to pray consistenly and well. Probably the other most important point that McKnight raises is that praying in this manner does not necessarily lead to "vain repetitions" any more than telling your spouse that you love them continually will. This and the afforementioned points should clear away any ignorant debris that would prevent non-liturgically reared Christians such as myself from embracing this ancient and valuable practice. McKnight concludes by walking the reader through the absolute basics of praying the main prayer books from the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions in addition to the contemporary "Divine Hours" by Phyllis Tickle. The strongest advice he gives is that it would be best to find an experienced person to help you develop this practice in your life. I hope to find just such a person soon!

Having grown up in the rural, evangelical Midwest, I was raised with the limited (very limited) understanding that `liturgy' was something those `weird' churches did, and that it was dry, boring, and irrelevant. Beyond such limited knowledge, I had no idea what `hours' meant (other than a period of time consisting of 60 minutes), or what a `daily office' was (other than a place where you go to work). Little did I know the connection to a global prayer movement that has thrived for centuries. Even though I have since learned what these terms mean, the idea of using a liturgical prayer book still seemed so foreign to me. What I needed was an easy to read primer on `praying with the church'. Thankfully, Scot McKnight delivered with his new book Praying With the Church. Like McKnight, and countless other evangelicals, I was very familiar with the practice of praying IN the church (spontaneous prayer gatherings, `popcorn' prayer, prayer meetings, etc). But what my prayer life has lacked was an ordered prayer habit WITH the global church. Merging the two forms of prayer together, orchestrates what McKnight calls a "sacred rhythm of prayer". This book is perfect for Christians such as me, eager to enrich one's prayer life, but lacking in instruction on how to pray WITH the church. To those from Anglican, Orthodox, Celtic, Catholic traditions, this book will simply preach to the choir (maybe Scot will follow up with Praying IN the Church for those of liturgical backgrounds!). After some introductory comments on his personally journey of learning how to pray WITH the church, he reexamines the prayer life of Jesus, who most definitely joined in the fixed prayer schedule of first century Judaism. With such a foundation laid, he then surveys the major streams of fixed, rhythmic prayer in the church today (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and the ecumenical Divine Hours). Each chapter is a helpful introduction on how to use the prayer books from each tradition, what each book's strengths and weaknesses are, and how these books came to be written. A book on sacred, fixed prayer could easily overwhelm a reader like me. Which book should I choose? There are so many! Fortunately, McKnight is careful to keep his instruction as readable as possible, and he frequently suggests taking this new path of prayer realistically: "Set realistic expectations...avoid the heroic." Praying WITH the Church is not meant to be a limiting, mindless `prayer prison', where the Holy Spirit is shut out for the sake of uniformity. Rather, praying with the church is a way to join the global church in guided prayers steeped in the Word of God, in tune with the rhythm of life God has instilled within His creation. To those evangelical sisters and brothers who are wary of `fixed prayer', McKnight offers a valid point. "no one can dispute the tendency for fixed-hour prayers to slip into mindless, memorized mouthing of words. Whose fault, we need to ask is, that." I