Finding God in the Verbs: Crafting a Fresh Language of Prayer
Ebook
Overview
Do you long for deeper communion with God? Spiritual director Jennie Isbell and Quaker minister Brent Bill know how easy it is to lapse into repetitious refrains of prayer:"Our hearts told us that we had lapsed into easy God speak. We weren’t reaching deep into our spirits and drawing out living words of praise, confession, concern, intercession and longing. We were tired of speaking in clipped shorthand to God. We wanted to pray in such a way that we showed up with our whole selves."If you have experienced a similar longing, come join the authors on this prayer journey into the deep waters of the Spirit. This book offers companionship and guidance as you begin to notice, consider and deepen your prayer experiences, with refreshing exercises sprinkled through every chapter to offer you a fresh language for prayer. Find God here—in the nouns and the verbs of your conversation.
1. A New Way to Pray
2. What Lies Beneath the Words
3. God in Action: Finding our Verbs
4. Images of an Active Tense God: Nouns that fit the Verbs
5. Hope, Beauty and Depth: Adjectives and Adverbs
6. Unpacking Meaning: Shared Language and Authentic Prayer
7. Jesus, the Word of God, and Our Words
8. Beyond Words: Other Ways of Communicating—Or Not
9. Gospel Means Good News: And News Is New, by Definition
Appendix 1: Exercises for Building Prayer as a Spiritual Practice
Appendix 2: Prayer Exercises
Appendix 3: Resources
Acknowledgments
Notes
Finding God in the Verbs—the Workshop
About Brent
About Jennie
"Prayer can be formulaic, inauthentic and boring in a thousand ways, but Isbell and Bill, both Quakers, take to heart a charge to refresh prayer as expressive language and as a means to speak with and about God. Accessible theology underlies their eminently practical approach, asking pray-ers—those who pray—to take stock of their own assumptions and preferences in developing a way to pray. Both authors give workshops, so the book is chock-full of practical, thought-provoking exercises that will help the reader develop not only facility with language but a deeper conception of the Divine and greater self-knowledge. The many examples the authors generate use everyday language, providing patterns and friendly encouragement for the task of prayer. The authors deliver on the subtitle’s promise; this is a fresh, useful approach to a subject much written about. Readers will learn to pray not perfectly but personally."
"In this practical yet profound guide to prayer, two lovers of language suggest rethinking habitual ways of communicating with God. Highly recommended for all who long to articulate the silent yearnings, hidden fears, private sorrows and burning joys of the soul—and particularly for those pastors, spiritual directors and soul friends who accompany them along the path."
"Finding God in the Verbs . . . is especially for those whose prayer life is not very meaningful anymore. It is a new way to pray. The book exercises begin with you where you are now and lead you into a new way to pray that is authentic, real and life-giving."
"Finding God in the Verbs came along just in time. I am sick unto death of my own prayers, and suspect God too is tired of rolling his eyes at my words. Why am I so careful in my writing and so careless in my prayers? Bill and Isbell are renewing not only my prayers but my heart."
"This exciting book, full of fresh ideas, is an invitation to discovery of self and to theological growth through prayer. It is tinged with humor and filled with stories, summoning the reader to dance, to see with new eyes and to experience the fullness of embodiment. Jennie Isbell and Brent Bill remind us that prayer is about desire and cultivating awareness."
"This book offers a very practical approach to refreshing your words, hopefully facilitating greater honesty and depth in that conversation. The wealth of exercises also makes it a useful resource to draw on for workshops."
Product Details
- Title : Finding God in the Verbs: Crafting a Fresh Language of Prayer
- Authors:
- Isbell, Jennie
- Bill, J. Brent
- Publisher: IVP Books
- Publication Date: 2015
- ISBN: 9780830897186
Jennifer Leigh Isbell (MDiv, Earlham School of Religion) is an experienced spiritual director. In addition to her training in spiritual care, Jennifer cares deeply about the intersection of the spirit and the body, working extensively as a practitioner and teacher in yoga, Integrative Yoga Therapy, Reiki, Thai bodywork and massage. She is the author of Leading Quakers, an eight-part curriculum for training worship communities and she lives in Greenfield, Massachusetts with her husband.
Brent Bill is a writer, retreat leader and Quaker minister. He's the author and coauthor of many books, includingAwaken Your Senses, Sacred Compass: The Way of Spiritual Discernment, Holy Silence: The Gift of Quaker Spirituality, Mind the Light: Learning to See with Spiritual Eyes, Holy Places: Matching Sacred Space with Mission and Message, and Imagination and Spirit: A Contemporary Quaker Reader. In addition, he is the author of more than one hundred short stories, nonfiction articles and the popular blog Holy Ordinary.Bill is a graduate of Wilmington College and the Earlham School of Religion. He has been a local church pastor, denominational executive, seminary faculty member andgo-cart track operator. He lives with his wife on Ploughshares Farm, fifty acres of Indiana farmland that is being reclaimed for native hardwood forests and warm season prairie grasses.