Prayer DVD

Last winter, I reviewed Philip Yancey's latest book, Prayer. This past month, Zondervan has released a 6 session small group curriculum based on the book and taught by Philip Yancey. While the book delves deeper into more issues regarding prayer, the small group curriculum is a great primer which will get groups talking about a portion of their lives which most everyone wishes was stronger.

The curriculum covers six topics from the book -
The View from Above - the fact that God has everyone in mind and ultimately his glory in mind, whereas we are mainly concerned about our our needs and wants.
Why Pray? - this session touches on the subtitle of the book and DVD - does it make any difference? Yancey talks about the fact that God knows what we are going to pray about, so why should we go through the motions?
Keeping Company with God - this session speaks to Paul assertion to "pray without ceasing". How is that possible? What does it look like in practice? Yancey speaks of keeping a running inner dialogue with God.
How to Pray - while there is no formula to prayer, there are things that each of us can do to make prayer a daily, regular practice. Each of us need to find our own way to pray, not someone else's.
Prayer Problems - the book tackles this issue both more deeply and more broadly, but the DVD
covers the biggest problem for most people - unanswered prayer. Yancey looks to our expectations as well as potential road blocks we have put up ourselves.
Does Prayer Change Anything? - Something that C.S. Lewis said has always stuck with me - I pray not so much to change God, but to change myself. Yancey picks up on that and talks about how prayer changes us.

This is an excellent group study and one that will enhance people's communication and communion with God. I believe that prayer is something that many people struggle with and that once people get in a group setting and share struggles and issues they have, they will see that they are not alone. The study will also bring to light helps to those issues.