(RE)Understanding Prayer: A Fresh Approach to Conversation With God [Paperback]

Kyle Lake (Author), Dan Kimball (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2005

What if, after having logged countless hours within the walls of the Church, you woke up one day feeling completely brain-dead about prayer? What’s the purpose? How does it work? Why even do it? A few years ago, Kyle Lake—a pastor—found himself in this very predicament. Tired of the clichés. Annoyed with the vacant banter. And suspecting that a simple word like prayer failed to express the fullness of our interaction with God.

So he set out to "reunderstand" prayer. Here, Lake deconstructs the wrong ideas of prayer that handicap our conversations with God, including Prayer as Drama, Prayer as Social Dance, and the All-Too Hip and Relevant Prayer (just to name a few). He seeks answers to a few of faith’s most pressing questions:

* How do you hear God?

* How do you know God’s voice from your own?

* How do you deal with seemingly unanswered prayers? (re)Understanding Prayer is the first step on a journey toward a more authentic, personal, and powerful prayer life. God’s ready. Are you?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kyle Lake is the author of Understanding God’s Will: How to Hack the Equation Without Formulas (Relevant Books) and the pastor of University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, the home church of the David Crowder Band. He and his wife, Jen, have a daughter and twin sons.

Product Details

• Paperback: 181 pages
• Publisher: Relevant Books (October 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976364263
• ISBN-13: 978-0976364269
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,220,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good book for what it is..., September 8, 2006

By 

Mark N (NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: (RE)Understanding Prayer: A Fresh Approach to Conversation With God (Paperback)

I picked up this book with some inkling of what I'd find inside. DO NOT, I repeat, please do not buy this book if you are looking for a new formula for getting what you want out of God. You will be disappointed. Like so many of the 'Emergent' authors, Kyle Lake instead focuses on the essence rather than the mechanics of prayer (although he does devote a short section to what he describes as 'nuts and bolts'). By essence, I mean a book that tries first to deconstruct what prayer is not, and then reassemble it using examples and ideas from Judaic literature, Eastern thought, Jesus' prayers, and everyday experience.

What I appreciated most about this book was its clear expose' of the self-centered, indulgent, if I push God's buttons this way I-will-get-what-I-want/need kind of prayer. Those buttons can be:
1. Waking up at 4:00 AM because that's when really spiritual people wake up to pray.
2. Praying for X amount of hours 'cause God really likes that.
3. Letting my cultural idioms dominate the communication in an effort to be 'real'
ect...
When you are really honest about these activities, aren't they (for the most part) an effort to covnince God (or yourself) that you are really serious/spiritual about prayer and that He SHOULD respond to this amount of piety?

Kyle speaks about this and other subjects such as: Unanswered prayer, What is prayer, public vs private prayer...
Some of the sections of the books really annoyed me, though. I realize that this could my personal taste, but there were probably 15 pages worth of email exchanges between him and some of his students scattered within the book. I really didn't find these very helpful and they became tedious to read. Also (and I hope that his makes sense), the book should have been twice as long, or twice as short. There were things in the book that I thought were very inciteful, and I would have loved for him to expand upon them. However, there were entire sections (like the emails) that I though the book would have been better without.

Finally, I have to say that overall this was a very good book, and I would especially recommend it to those who don't pray at all...it will help you find a starting place.

PS If you like Brennan Manning and Dallas Willard, they get their fair share of quotes within this book.

6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I think I'd like Kyle, but the book has little substance, July 7, 2006

By 

C. Bryant (Midwest) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: (RE)Understanding Prayer: A Fresh Approach to Conversation With God (Paperback)

I read the first 70 pages of this book waiting to hit the substance that was surely being built toward with all of the stories, but I never came to it. Judging by his stories and his obvious love for some classics in the movie world, I think I'd love hanging out with the guy...but the book really didn't have much to it. Story after story of his life and experiences, but I was left disappointed coming up empty handed as I sought to find some guidance in prayer.

I love his approach and agree that we don't need a formula. He wrote that the formulas and such (like ACTS) are like training wheels that we eventually need to ride free of, and I agree. I don't think we can approach God that way. But 70 pages into a book without anything more than a few good points is not what I was looking for, nor does it fulfill the title of the book.

11 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Emergent Pastor Struggles with Prayer, November 26, 2005

By 

Roy Ingle "The Seeking Disciple" (Lexington, SC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: (RE)Understanding Prayer: A Fresh Approach to Conversation With God (Paperback)

I am not a fan of the emergent movement to say the lease. In fact I would argue that I am opposed to it. Having said that, let me be the first to say that I did enjoy Kyle Lake's book on prayer. While I don't think this book will by no means be a classic on prayer, I do think Lake does what he set out to do and that is get the believer thinking about what prayer truly is.

In this short work, Lake first takes us through his own struggles of prayer over the years. Is prayer simply a discipline? Is prayer merely selfishness? Is prayer to be on a charismatic level? What is prayer? While I am dissappointed that Lake doesn't take us through a study of Scripture to find his answer, he does take us to his own experience and how he know enjoys prayer by seeing it as a conversation with His Father. That is what Jesus had in mind in Matthew 6:9 when He taught His disciples to pray by starting out, "Our Father." Relationship before rules!

Overall the book is good to read. While Lake is an emergent pastor and you get that feel in the book, the book is not heretical. Unlike some emergent books I've read, Lake doesn't just chop up the Church but he truly wants to see Christians enjoying prayer. While I would appreciate more exegesis of prayer texts, the book is a refreshing read on prayer.