I have been in professional ministry for over 60 years, most of those years as a pastor. I can’t imagine a richer life. By common standards, most would say I have had a successful ministry. I have reservations even using the word successful in relation to ministry.
One of the four or five most influential persons in my life was Brother Wiley Grisson, a country Baptist preacher. He had little education and didn’t know much by the world’s standards, but he had a supply of love and compassion that overflowed from his life to mine. He knew the essence of the Gospel, and he presented it with conviction. He sounded a note that called for a response from a fourteen-year-old boy in the congregation. The decision I formalized that day by walking down the aisle and becoming a member of the church was probably the most important decision I have made.
I think of Brother Grisson when people talk about “successful” ministry. If anyone ever assesses my contribution to the church and the Christian movement, they will conclude it is not the positions I have held or the places I have served, but a book I wrote: The Workbook of Living Prayer.
The book grew out of my own inadequacy. My “job” with THE UPPER ROOM involved developing resources to support persons in their spiritual growth, particularly their life of prayer. I was embarrassingly limited in my own prayer life, so I immersed myself in the great literature of prayer. I discovered that you can read any number of great books about pray and still not pray. Feeling more and more inadequate, I began to pray for the Lord to give me something that would enable persons like me, no matter where they were on their Christian journey, to actually pray as they read about prayer.
The Workbook of Living Prayer was the answer to my praying. It is a primer, a manual, a six-week daily guide to praying as you learn to pray. The process, not the content, is the genius; and that was the Spirit’s gift. It has sold over a million copies and published in at least nine languages. Though published in 1974, it is still being used and I regularly get calls, letters, or emails sharing the impact it has had.
Through the years I have written and taught about prayer and spirituality. The picture above is of some of those books, at the center of which is Healing Prayer is God’s Idea, a book I have co-authored with a friend, David Chotka. I’m excited! With my excitement, I have a confession. In all my years of writing and teaching about prayer, I have not given enough attention to healing prayer. The church has neglected this aspect of praying too long. A part of the reason for that is the way healing prayer has been used for selfish purposes in churches and especially on T.V. We must not allow that to prevent us from responding to the undeniable truth that through God’s empowering presence, we are invited to partner with the healing power of the Holy Spirit.
I have shared in writing this book because I believe we have not taught enough about this aspect of prayer, and it remains a mystery to the majority of Christians. Healing prayer is God’s Idea. We can pray with confidence that when we practice healing prayer we are cooperating with God’s plan, and God hears us.
I appreciate the way Dr. Craig Keener described the book: “This book offers a life-changing way to look at prayer. We are not trying to convince God, rather, we are sharing in his own heart and plan.” The book will be available May 27th.