The Battle Plan for Prayer: From Basic Training to Targeted Strategies by Stephen and Alex Kendrick is part of a family of books that has come out in conjunction with the movie War Room. Family is a great way to describe this grouping of books because each seems to be aimed at a different age or gender. This one is aimed at adults.
This is meant to be used like a devotional. It has 35 small chapters and is much like taking a course in prayer. It covers what prayer is, how to pray, who to pray for, and the potential pitfalls of an active prayer life. Each section is several pages and ends in with a pre-written prayer.
I really like this series because of the depth of information and the breadth of topics covered. This really is like taking a month long course in prayer. In fact, even though this would probably be easiest to use individually, it would make a nice text for a Sunday school class or Bible study.
There are several appendices in the back with lists of scriptures, things to pray for, and other information that someone praying may find useful. I'm not big on pre-programmed prayer, but I found the other appendices very useful.
One nit picky thing, but one that none the less left me feeling marginalized was the appendix on praying for your pastor or minister. Everything referred to the minister as "he" or "his wife". There is no reason for this gender specific style. As a female minister/preacher, it was just one more smack in the face. The only reasons I can think for them to be gender specific was as a comment on being against women in ministry or a frivolous nod to marriage being between a man and a woman. Either just felt slimy. Yeah, Christian marriage is between a man and a woman, but that wasn't the place to throw that in and as a woman in ministry, who has been clearly called and anointed by God, it caused an eye roll from me and unnecessary bad feelings toward the book. (For those of you who want to pull the 1 Timothy 2&3 argument, I serve underprivileged youth who don't have Christian parents and the elderly in a nursing home that can't afford a chaplain. When a man shows up to lead the services, preach, and minister to these people, I'll reconsider my ministry as a woman. In 6+ years I've never had a man show up to minister to these people instead or feel like these people where even worth their time.)
Nitpicking aside, I recommend this book to anyone wanting to take a serious journey through prayer. You may already know everything in the book, but few of us put it into practice. I can't imagine someone going through this book and not growing in their communication with God.
I was provided this book free of charge from B&H Publishing Group in return for my honest opinion.
This is meant to be used like a devotional. It has 35 small chapters and is much like taking a course in prayer. It covers what prayer is, how to pray, who to pray for, and the potential pitfalls of an active prayer life. Each section is several pages and ends in with a pre-written prayer.
I really like this series because of the depth of information and the breadth of topics covered. This really is like taking a month long course in prayer. In fact, even though this would probably be easiest to use individually, it would make a nice text for a Sunday school class or Bible study.
There are several appendices in the back with lists of scriptures, things to pray for, and other information that someone praying may find useful. I'm not big on pre-programmed prayer, but I found the other appendices very useful.
One nit picky thing, but one that none the less left me feeling marginalized was the appendix on praying for your pastor or minister. Everything referred to the minister as "he" or "his wife". There is no reason for this gender specific style. As a female minister/preacher, it was just one more smack in the face. The only reasons I can think for them to be gender specific was as a comment on being against women in ministry or a frivolous nod to marriage being between a man and a woman. Either just felt slimy. Yeah, Christian marriage is between a man and a woman, but that wasn't the place to throw that in and as a woman in ministry, who has been clearly called and anointed by God, it caused an eye roll from me and unnecessary bad feelings toward the book. (For those of you who want to pull the 1 Timothy 2&3 argument, I serve underprivileged youth who don't have Christian parents and the elderly in a nursing home that can't afford a chaplain. When a man shows up to lead the services, preach, and minister to these people, I'll reconsider my ministry as a woman. In 6+ years I've never had a man show up to minister to these people instead or feel like these people where even worth their time.)
Nitpicking aside, I recommend this book to anyone wanting to take a serious journey through prayer. You may already know everything in the book, but few of us put it into practice. I can't imagine someone going through this book and not growing in their communication with God.
I was provided this book free of charge from B&H Publishing Group in return for my honest opinion.
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