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The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why by Phyllis Tickle

Adam Shields —  December 27, 2010 — 3 Comments

Great Emergence, The: How Christianity Is Changing and Why (emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith)Takeaway: Many stories can be told about the changes that have been going on in Christianity.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

I have admired the work that Phyllis Tickle has done with fixed hour prayer and other spiritual disciplines for a while.  So when I saw another book of hers was free on kindle I snatched it up.  (It is no longer free on kindle, free books are usually short term, so pick them up quickly.)

I really was not expecting this style of book from someone that I have come to associate primarily with spiritual disciplines.  It is essentially a narrative history of Christianity over the past century or so.  It has a clear thesis, that Christianity is changing and the Emerging (and Emergent) church is the next step in the church’s reformation process (a process that occurs about once every 500 years according to Tickle).

She mounts an interesting argument, but in the end I did not really buy into the argument.  I am of the age and probably of the sociological and tempramental and theological categories to be a part of the emerging church movement, I see much value in the rest of the church, and only limited value within the emerging church.  Those within that movement that I respect have been distancing themselves from some of the claims (and even more from the terminology) for several years.

In the end I think that the emerging (or whatever you want to call it) church reaches a particular type of person that will not be reached by many other church expressions.  The role of the church is to gather people and lead them to Christ, while being Christ to others.  Necessarily churches will look different in order to reach different people.  I am glad that the Emerging church exists.  I just do not think it is a major departure from the current church.
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I recently purchased a new android phone.  I have had a blackberry for the past couple years.  (Roughly since the time I first bought a kindle.)  I have not been reading much on my blackberry and do not think I have finished any books completely on the blackberry.  But with the larger and much better screen of the android phone I finished this book within a few days of first buying the phone.  It is a reader that I will continue to use.

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Christmastide: Prayers for Advent Through Epiphany from The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle

Adam Shields —  December 1, 2010 — 2 Comments

Christmastide: Prayers for Advent Through Epiphany from The Divine HoursTakeaway: This is a great way to both start practicing fixed hour prayers and celebrate Advent.

Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition

I am going to break one of my rules and review a book I am not finished with yet.  Over the last year I have been working through a lot of books about prayer from a variety of Christian traditions.  It is difficult to talk about prayer and not discuss fixed hour prayer, which is having a resurgence in the Evangelical world.  That resurgence is in no small part to the work of Phyllis Tickle.  She has completed her set of prayer books for fixed hour prayers throughout the church year.  I reviewed the Prayers for Summertime earlier this year.

The Divine Hours (or fixed hour prayer) I think is extremely beneficial to help a person step outside their normal lives and re-direct their attention on God throughout the day.  I am not particularly good at following the divine hours, I am a nanny and my day is full of interruptions and disjointed activities.  But I have started this Advent book to try to reconnect with fixed hour prayer at least through this season.

The way this book is formated there are three daily prayers (ideally to be done at 6-8 AM, 12-2 PM, 5-8 PM) and one night session that is repeated for a week.  I am not strict about these.  I try to do it as close to the time as I can and if I miss one, I skip it and start at the next session.

The prayer are fairly brief (about 10 minutes to do as session) and include a mix of psalms, written prayers, common hymns and other scripture.  The Prayers for Summertime really helped me see the psalms in context of prayer as most of them were intended.

If you are interested in trying it I would pick it up.  We are only a few days into Advent and you can join in where you can.

Here are some links to the the other Kindle Editions in the series

Eastertide: Prayer for Lent Through Easter

Prayers for Summertime

The Night Offices: Prayers for the Hours From Sunset to Sunrise

The Divine Hours: Pocket Edition (this is a short edition of daily prayer that are general and can be used throughout the year)

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The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Adam Shields —  March 19, 2010 — 1 Comment

Cover of "The Divine Hours: Prayers for S...

Cover via Amazon

Takeaway: Fixed hour prayer is a great way to focus on God throughout the day, but hard to do in a modern, busy world.

Purchase Links: Hardback, Paperback, Kindle Edition

For the past couple months I have been trying to do fixed hour prayers.  The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime is part of a four book series by Phyllis Tickle of fixed hour prayers.  There are four entries a day, Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night.  The prayers are a good mix of modern and historic prayers, psalms and other scripture readings and hymns.

I have not participated in fixed hour prayers before, but after reading In Constant Prayer (my review) I thought I should try it.  I can see real value in stopping throughout the day and concentrating on God.  I am a low church guy.  I have no real back ground in liturgy, the church year, fasting, etc.  That is one reason I have been interested in the Ancient Practice Series from Thomas Nelson to try and find some relationship to the historic and modern global church.  I have found that when I do the fixed hour prayers, whether I am in the mood to worship and pray or not, I almost always am caught up in reverence and worship.  It is not uncommon for me to really not be paying much attention as I walk through it and still by caught up in worship.  Keeping the schedule is hard.  I am usually OK with the morning and night, but the afternoon is hard.  I am a nanny for a 1 year old and a 2 1/2 year old.  I am a part time consultant for non-profits.  I try to keep up with this blog.  I rarely participate in the afternoon session.  And for some strange formatting decision the night prayers are completely separate from the other three set of prayers so I often do the evening at night and then never do the actual night prayers.

That brings me to formating.  I am reading this on a kindle.  I think that the kindle is a great format for fixed hour prayers.  The kindle never looses your place, the prayer book can be as long and detailed as you want.  It can be carried with you and you do not have to shout that you are doing fixed hour prayers.  But this book was not designed for kindle.  The hymns are the worst.  There is often two verses written side by side instead of just formated straight down the page.  And the night prayers being separate from the rest of the prayers is impossible to use.  The other problem is that this is the only one of the four books that has been converted to kindle format.  So my only option is to try to find another book of fixed hour prayers or just keep doing this one throughout the year.  I have been looking and I have not found another better option.  The others prayer books that I have seen have even worse formating and often require jumping all over the book to complete a set of prayers.  There is a real need for someone to write or compile a set of prayers for ebook.   So I will probably keep using this one.  In spite of the formatting issues and my lack of consistency, the value of the fixed hour prayers is much greater than any minor inconveniences.

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