I have been there - the prayer meetings that were so boring I am convinced that even God must have fallen asleep in the middle of them. Chris Tiegreen in his book called Creative Prayer, Multnomah, 2007, wants to put prayer back in the land of the living. In his introduction he says, “The purpose of this book is to discuss creative expression to God, to let our interaction with him overflow with our whole personality – emotions, artistry, and everything else he has put within us.”
Tiegreen had me from his first illustration in the introduction. A young man, he said, was passionately in love with a young woman. The young man expressed that love in every delightful, creative way he could think of. He gave her gifts, wrote poetry, painted pictures, sang songs – he was so in love with her, he held nothing back.
The young woman on the other hand, responded to these expressions of love with brief messages on her cell phone every now and again. She loved him, but the only way she communicated her love for the young man was through talking. That, Tiegreen says, is the way we go about our relationship with God.
What an apt picture of the lukewarm attempts we make to connect with our heavenly father. His book then, tries to break our hearts out of the deep freeze we have them in.
He makes a strong case for us responding in creative ways to God by going through several examples in scripture where God asks his people to use the arts - dancing, music, pictures and symbols - to communicate with him.
Tiegreen’s last chapter “Full Contact Prayer: A Sacred Lifestyle”, is full of helpful suggestions to make creative prayer an everyday part of our lives using our sight, movement, posture, sound, touch, taste, and smell.
Tiegreen comes at creative prayer from what we might call a charismatic church tradition. What he has to say about creativity and passionate prayer may make some of us uncomfortable. Our usual prayer styles might be more formal and structured than what he is advocating. But I think that Creative Prayer is a good book for any of us to read. Sometimes we chose more traditional spiritual practices because they allow us to keep God at a comfortable, controllable distance. We may not be willing to make our Christianity personal and real.
I recommend that you read Creative Prayer. You may need to “eat the meat and spit out the bones”, but even so you will find a challenge in the book that will help make your faith more vital and real than it has ever been before.
Reviewed by Joan Tyvoll
