A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants (Upper Room, 1983)

1982-3 was the most difficult year of my professional life, recovering from a painful divorce from the church to which we had been called a year earlier. [1]

But it was also the richest, spiritually. With no other pastoral interruptions, I prayed/read while walking around English Bay, Vancouver ( ¢â‚¬Ëœthe most beautiful city in the world ¢â‚¬â„¢ the travel people tell me: what a place for God to choose for a  ¢â‚¬Ëœdesert ¢â‚¬â„¢ experience!).

I lived in the spiritual classic The Cloud of Unknowing –  ¢â‚¬Ëœpiercing the dark cloud with a dart of longing love ¢â‚¬â„¢  ¢â‚¬“ and read books about contemplative prayer and spiritual direction.

And dreamed dreams which I hadn ¢â‚¬â„¢t dreamt before. Like: why don ¢â‚¬â„¢t mature Christians have more devotional resources which bridge the conservative/liberal/Catholic divides? Actually two pastor-scholars had asked the same question a generation before  ¢â‚¬“ W E Sangster on one side of the Atlantic and A W Tozer on the other. And just seven or eight years earlier a new wave of spiritual writing was born, led by Richard Foster, Kenneth Leech, Tilden Edwards and others    ¢â‚¬“ a movement which has been gathering momentum ever since.

But while those five authors wrote some spiritual classics which still enrich us, they hadn ¢â‚¬â„¢t put together something which could be used for pastors ¢â‚¬â„¢/leaders ¢â‚¬â„¢ daily devotions.

So I dreamed of publishing something which would bring all these streams together, and the initial volume  ¢â‚¬“ Still Waters Deep Waters – became something of a best-seller, at least for an Australian book  ¢â‚¬“ 35,000 copies. This was followed by seven other similarly-formatted volumes over the next ten years or so. [2]

But down in Nashville, Tennessee, two people had a similar vision, and in 1983 produced a devotional classic titled A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants. Like Still Waters Deep Waters Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck brought together the best Scriptures, quotes, homilies, poems and prayers from a wide range of sources, into 418 pages of delightful spiritual nourishment.

Study this list of their most-quoted authors: Carlo Caretto, Henri Nouwen, George MacDonald, William Barclay, Anthony Bloom, the Cloud of Unknowing, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Richard Foster, Robert Greenleaf, Urban T. Holmes III, Thomas a Kempis, Hans Kung, Malcolm Muggeridge, Thomas Pettepiece, Hannah Whitall Smith, Mother Teresa, Elton Trueblood, Simon Tugwell, Teresa of Avila, Howard Thurman, Evelyn Underhill, Simone Weil, H A Williams ¢â‚¬ ¦ Each of these contributed six or more quotes ¢â‚¬ ¦

Now that ¢â‚¬â„¢s a marvelous group of spiritual writers: if there ¢â‚¬â„¢s a name or two there you don ¢â‚¬â„¢t know, guess what? you ¢â‚¬â„¢ve been feasting on limited rations all these years! They ¢â‚¬â„¢re Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, evangelical, liberal, Anglican, Quaker, Presbyterian, classical, modern   – you name it! The secret of anthologies like this one is that the compilers believe God has spoken by  ¢â‚¬Ëœmany and various ¢â‚¬â„¢ saints and prophets over the centuries. Richard Foster ¢â‚¬â„¢s Streams of Living Water is the best modern exponent of that idea. [3]

Let me whet your appetite with some of the best quotes:

When we go to the Bible with an empty spirit, moved by intellectual vanity, striving to show our superiority to the text; or as barren souls who go sight-seeing to the words of the prophets, we discover the shells but miss the core. It is easier to enjoy beauty than to sense the holy ¢â‚¬ ¦ (Abraham Joshua Heschel  ¢â‚¬“ a Jew!)  

  God is nearer to our minds than our own thoughts; nearer to our hearts than our own feelings; more intimate with our wills than our most vigorous decisions. If we are not aware of him, it is not because he is not with us (Albert Edward Day  ¢â‚¬“ a Methodist)  

The fire of God [burns worst at a distance]. When we turn and approach him, the burning begins to change to comfort, which comfort will grow to such bliss that the heart at length cries out with a gladness no other gladness can reach:  ¢â‚¬ËœWhom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides thee! ¢â‚¬â„¢ (George MacDonald  ¢â‚¬“ one of C S Lewis ¢â‚¬â„¢s mentors).

I could easily have chosen 200 more ¢â‚¬ ¦

Do yourself a favour and go to some of the online secondhand book sites and get a copy of this brilliant anthology. [4] And take your time reading the 68 chapters/collections of quotes  ¢â‚¬“ perhaps for a whole year.

[1] http://jmm.org.au/articles/17347.htm

[2] http://jmm.org.au/articles/9645.htm

[3] http://jmm.org.au/articles/15687.htm

[4] http://www.abebooks.com/ has plenty for sale  ¢â‚¬“ for just a few dollars upwards!

Rowland Croucher

November 2011