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    Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices
    Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices
    Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices
    Ebook197 pages6 hours

    Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices

    By Brian D. McLaren and Phyllis Tickle

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Shines a practical light on the spiritual disciplines that have been in use since the time of Abraham.

    In a sense, every day of our lives is labor. It is questionable if you can ever be exactly the same person waking up on two consecutive days. How are spiritual sojourners to cope with the constant change? Many are beginning to explore the ancient Christian spiritual practices that have been in use for centuries, everything from fixed-hour prayer to fasting to sincere observance of the Sabbath. What is causing this hunger for deeper spirituality?

    Brian McLaren guides us on this quest for an explanation of these spiritual practices, many of which go all the way back to Abraham and the establishment of Israel. In the midst of contemporary Christianity, we discover the beauty of these ancient disciplines and the transformation through Christ that each can provide.

    Why have certain spiritual disciplines been in use for centuries and why is it important?

    It is questionable if one can ever be exactly the same person waking up on two consecutive days. How are spiritual sojourners to cope with the constant change? Many are beginning to explore the ancient Christian spiritual practices, such as fixed-hour prayer, fasting and sincere observance of the Sabbath. What is causing this hunger for deeper spirituality?

    Brian McLaren guides us on this quest for an explanation of these spiritual practices, many of which go all the way back to Abraham and the establishment of Israel. In the midst of contemporary Christianity, we discover the beauty of these disciplines and the transformation through Christ that each can provide.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateMay 4, 2008
    ISBN9781418572372
    Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices
    Author

    Brian D. McLaren

    Brian D. McLaren (MA, University of Maryland) is an author, speaker, activist and public theologian. After teaching college English, Brian pastored Cedar Ridge Community Church in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area. Brain has been active in networking and mentoring church planters and pastors for over 20 years. He is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings in the US and internationally.

    Read more from Brian D. Mc Laren

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    Reviews for Finding Our Way Again

    3.5/5

    47 ratings8 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The book is about rediscovering our faith as a way of life, not simply as a system of belief. He talks briefly about Abrahamic practices such as fasting, fixed prayers, and etc., and how these ancient practices can be a common ground for all faiths. And like with all things, if we do not practice or make it a way of life, we can never grow. But, he does not go into any real in depth detail on them [ancient practices], perhaps to allow the other books in the series to talk about them more.One thing I liked about the book was the gist of it was motivational and each chapter had "Spiritual Exercises" at the end of them. The questions were easy to answer, causing the reader to think, and they would be great for group readings.But, I did not care for how he seemed to go all over the place with his anecdotes, and there were many places I had to re-read the passages again, because I had trouble concentrating on the point he was making. The book overall was a decent read, but there were several things in it that I did not agree with him on. I suppose that's the way it goes though. I just had higher expectations of the book, and was left unsatisfied in the end.
    • 4/5
      Very much like the other books in this series, this book is written to allow the average lay person to take a look back at the way ancient Christianity was practiced.Sometimes, we need to step back and time to see how things were previously done. And also to see why.The author also provides exercises for us to do in order to allow ourselves to come closer to practicing the old ways.I know in our busy lives today, we feel stressed because we run from one thing to another. It is only when we take time out to ensure that we nourish our spirits do we grow and flourish.This is one of those books that you want to work through at a relatively slow pace. Read the chapter, do the exercises, live and breath it for a little bit, all before moving on to the next chapter.
    • 2/5
      Regarding the truth: if one has lost their way and strayed from the path, they must retrace their steps and find their way back to the place they had originally mis-stepped. Even though there are a lot of chunks in here that I don't agree with, I like what Brian McLaren was going for with Finding Our Way Again - in the broader sense. Christ's followers don't always follow Christ as closely as they ought to. Making Christ's ways a set of rules to follow makes it worse - in contrast, Jesus seemed to mold his followers through organic relationship."Jesus never makes 'Christians' or 'converts,' but he calls disciples and sends them out to continue the process: learn the way so you can model and teach the way to others who will do the same." McLaren follows this with a citation that the term "Christian" only occurs 3 times in the New Testament while disciple occurs more than 250 times. However, he then immediately applies the same logic to Abraham, Moses, and Muhammad stating that all of them, as well as Jesus, were intending a movement as opposed to a religious institution. I'm all for getting away from legalistic religiosity. However, even if one were to choose not to believe that Christ is who he says he is, it's a hard case to argue that Jesus merely wanted a "movement".Later in the book McLaren lists some practices and exercises. He gives modern examples of people putting some disciplines in action and he gives some tangible suggestions on how we can as well. He stresses that these are not to add to the already unhealthy to-do list, but rather "The purpose of the ancient practices is not to make us more religious. It is to make us more alive. Alive to God." Though I love that bit, I struggle with this book. I am glad that McLaren is trying to help folks grow closer to God. However, I am disappointed by the lack of playing time Jesus is given. For a book centered on getting back to what Jesus did, I've heard an awful lot about what other people are doing currently without a clear connection with Christ. I think McLaren's response would be that God is at work in those people. I believe that too. I just missed Jesus as I read the book.I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their rad BookSneeze book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review of the book. The opinions I have expressed are my own. To see this review and others like it please check out the Booked and Convicted blog.
    • 4/5
      This book while abrasive sometimes, which is not necessarily bad, has many excellent insights about renewing ancient spiritual practices. Also, he gives a variety of metaphors to help the reader gain more intuitive insight into what is happening. This book however is not about how to actually do all of the spiritual practices, such as in "Celebrating Discipline". It is mainly about the purpose behind spiritual practices, in particular the three-fold path.
    • 2/5
      Meh. Nice idea, but not too taken by the book's execution.
    • 3/5
      Brian McLaren never ceases to be found writing or speaking on unexpected topics and showing up in unexpected places. This time, he is speaking of the ancient spiritual practices or spiritual disciplines of the ancient church.It was in the first chapter that we hear his thesis in his usual conversational style of writing. It’s about him conducting an interview with Dr. Peter Senge (father of systems theory and author of The Fifth Discipline). Senge was saying that in any bookstore, the best selling books will be on how to get rich and the second will be on Buddhism. Why Buddhism?Senge replied “I think it’s because Buddhism presents itself as a way of life, and Christianity presents itself as a system of belief.’ McLaren suggests that we (Christians) have to rediscover our faith as a way of life, shaped and strengthened by ancient practices (p.6). We hear how one of the earliest terms with which early followers of Jesus described themselves were that they were followers of “the Way.” This is the second one in The Ancient Practices series from Thomas Nelson publishing that I have read to aid people who are seeking a refresher course on some of the older spiritual practices of Christianity. This is the introductory guide to the series.As a Baptist, I was disappointed in a few things about McLaren’s book theologically. McLaren seems to open the door of “spirituality” wide enough for those of all three Abrahamic faiths in for the party. Throughout the book there were ecumenical undertones in his comparison of the faiths that practice much of the same practices. While I do not quibble with the ideas that Jews as well as Christians and Muslims practice a Sabbath, I do believe that a Sabbath without God’s complete word including the divinity and sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin - is really no more than an empty day off. For this theological reason, I cannot recommend McLaren’s book as primary material for those who are looking into beginning these practices. Practices without Jesus are empty, just as those who have books and do not read them are as empty as those who cannot read.I have found that I can say some positive things about McLaren’s work. “Finding Our Way Again,” seeks to promote disciples in disciplines that have been lost by quite a few in our culture. Early Christians did take the Abrahamic practices of prayer, fasting, Sabbath, common meals, pilgrimage, the observance of holidays and tithing from the people of Israel. For this reason, we do well to follow suit and ask ourselves how these practices might form us as disciples of Jesus Christ as they formed disciples from the earliest of days.
    • 1/5
      This book is the first in The Ancient Practices Series, published by Thomas Nelson. It is a book designed to look at early spiritual practices and how they can be implemented today, and is supposed to introduce the series.As a conservative Christian, this book did not appeal to me at all. The first part of the book has a very "all paths lead to God" feel, and neglects to emphasize that Jesus is the only path to salvation. As a self-proclaimed Christian writer, this should have been the foundation of such a series. I also felt that the book lacked coherence. I finished it wondering what point he was trying to make. He uses a lot of metaphors and imagery that don't seem to flow well. There ends up being very little information about the spiritual practices he's talking about, or in fact any real clue as to what they are. His personal anecdotes didn't always seem to mesh with the point he was trying to make either. Or maybe I just didn't get it. I wouldn't recommend this book at all. It doesn't seem well founded on Biblical doctrine, and would be very confusing to someone that wasn't strong in their faith. It left me with no desire to read the rest of the series.
    • 1/5
      This book is horrible and is not a Christian book.

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    Finding Our Way Again - Brian D. McLaren

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