Overview
How do we help our kids connect with God? Most parents want their kids to learn to love God. But most of us struggle to facilitate real spiritual experiences. It's hard enough to have a meaningful conversation with our kids about spiritual things, let alone help them experience true transformation in the presence of God. Jared Patrick Boyd discovered that children's spiritual formation is rooted in the imagination. When we lead our children through guided times of imaginative prayer, they can experience a connection with God that transcends mere Bible knowledge or doctrinal content. This unique resource provides six units of weekly guided imaginative prayer, themed around core topics: God's love, loving others, forgiveness, God as king, the good news of God, and the mission of God. Each unit has six sessions, providing a yearlong experience of spiritual formation for children ages five to thirteen. Through imaginative prayer, you can help your child connect with God. As you do so, you may find yourself connecting more closely with your child, and your own formation as a parent will deepen into greater awareness of God's work in your lives.
Full Product Details
Author: Jared Patrick Boyd
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Imprint: Inter-Varsity Press,US
Dimensions:
Width: 15.30cm
, Height: 2.30cm
, Length: 23.00cm
Weight: 0.430kg
ISBN: 9780830846252
ISBN 10: 0830846255
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 11 July 2017
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.
Reviews
"""We are glad to hear about anyone who is able to make the connection between this spiritual practice and both spiritual direction and spiritual formation. This is the kind of nurturing that is necessary for the transformation and renewal of Christian families and communities. -- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality & Practice"
""This is not a book for reading. It's a book for practicing. Jared Boyd graciously invites us to practice new ways of being present to God, ourselves, others, and creation, for and with the younger children (or childlike ones) in our lives. Not surprisingly, we are all transformed in the process. By gently making room and time for creative listening, imagination, and revelation of God's very good news of lavish love, children young and old together come to know God by experiencing this love that surpasses knowledge. From his experience as a parent, a pastor, and a beloved child of God, Jared sets forth practical, prayerful, and playful rhythms to tend the spiritual gardens of our children's lives. These habit-forming, love-shaping practices soften and seed the soil of their Christian imaginations, which the Holy Spirit tends, waters, and grows as he conforms them in love to the image of Jesus. Reminding us not to ask children (or anyone) to go where we are not willing to go ourselves, Jared vulnerably does the same, offering clear, creedal, formative structures with room for the dynamic relationship our children will have with God. Far from instilling knowledge about God into our children, Jared invites us to provide opportunities for our children to encounter and be transformed by God's triune love, faithfully embodying that life together with them as children of our heavenly Father."" -- Cherith Nordling, associate professor of theology, Northern Seminary ""In the age of social media, so many of us struggle to be present to those closest to us and to God, who is an ever-abiding presence with us. Jared Boyd's extraordinary book Imaginative Prayer introduces us to a way of learning to be present to those closest to us—our children—and together with them to learn to use our imaginations to become more attentive to God's presence with us. Read this book slowly and carefully, and experiment with it: you, your family, and your church will undoubtedly be transformed!"" -- C. Christopher Smith, founding editor, The Englewood Review of Books, coauthor of Slow Church ""In this book of depth and whimsy, Jared Boyd inspires the imagination with new ways of engaging children in the work of the Spirit. I will be using this book for years to come, not only with the ministry leaders I teach, but with my own children! Jared's book speaks to a deep need felt within the church and within the lives of parents to help our children learn new and creative ways to engage with what the Holy Spirit is doing in their lives and in the world today. The result is a book that is practical and reflective: a deep reflection on a way of approaching the inner spiritual life of children."" -- Beth M. Stovell, assistant professor of Old Testament, Ambrose University, national catalyst, Vineyard Formation (Theological and Spiritual Formation), Vineyard Canada ""As a spiritual director, I understand the importance of formational experiences with Jesus rather than knowledge about Jesus. As a mother, I have struggled to find language and resources to transcend my own awkward efforts to help my daughter know right things about God and instead establish a real, lived relationship with God. Jared Boyd's work in Imaginative Prayer is a gift to my mother's heart and, I believe, a gift to the body of Christ as a whole. Our children aren't just the future of the church, they are the church right now. Jared's rooted, Scriptural, and deeply relational guidance is the kind of resource families and congregations simply must pick up if we are to journey together into all that Jesus has for us in this fraught and fractious time. Jared's words are wise, strong, kind, and godly—just like Jesus' when he said, 'the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these' (Mt 19:14)."" -- Tara M. Owens, president and spiritual director, Anam Cara Ministries, instructor, Benedictine Benet Pines Monastery, former senior editor, Conversations Journal ""Jared Patrick Boyd invites parents to walk alongside their children into a fuller experience of who God is and his work in us and the world through the beautiful and powerful gift of imagination. These exercises forge a path toward knowing firsthand the love, forgiveness, faithfulness, invitation, good news, and remaking that are ours in Jesus. Be ready for a deep, transformative encounter with the divine, for both your child and yourself. We enthusiastically recommend this book!"" -- Lisa and Mark Scandrette, authors of Belonging and Becoming and Free ""As the wise ancients have made clear, prayer is not part of life; it is life. But to pray—to live with God in the world as God lives and to be formed in the image of our older brother Jesus—necessarily requires the marshaling of our imagination. And it is our imagination that leads to the neuroplastic change—flexible alterations in our neuron firing patterns—to which St. Paul was referring when speaking of the renewal of our minds. With Imaginative Prayer, Jared Boyd has given us a treasure that reveals not only what children need to flourish in their spiritual formation but, even more, what we adults need—we who are woefully undernourished in the practice of truly, robustly imagining God living with us. If the deeper, more joyful, more resilient life is what you seek for your children (and for yourself), then look no further to find what perhaps has been just beyond your imagination but now expectantly awaits your discovery of it."" -- Curt Thompson, author of The Soul of Shame and Anatomy of the Soul ""Jared Boyd's material is an invitation to explore the goodness of the kingdom of God through imaginative story. The heartbeat of Jesus' love is masterfully threaded into every narrative—gently and powerfully growing in the hearts and minds of children as they interact with it. Appealing to both the young and the young at heart: parents, grandparents, and teachers, you'll be surprised at your own experience! It is rich soil for spiritual formation and the fruit is abundant!"" -- Becky Waugaman, Vineyard Church, Des Moines, Iowa ""We are glad to hear about anyone who is able to make the connection between this spiritual practice and both spiritual direction and spiritual formation. This is the kind of nurturing that is necessary for the transformation and renewal of Christian families and communities. -- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality & Practice
In this book of depth and whimsy, Jared Boyd inspires the imagination with new ways of engaging children in the work of the Spirit. I will be using this book for years to come, not only with the ministry leaders I teach, but with my own children! Jared's book speaks to a deep need felt within the church and within the lives of parents to help our children learn new and creative ways to engage with what the Holy Spirit is doing in their lives and in the world today. The result is a book that is practical and reflective: a deep reflection on a way of approaching the inner spiritual life of children. --Beth M. Stovell, assistant professor of Old Testament, Ambrose University, national catalyst, Vineyard Formation (Theological and Spiritual Formation), Vineyard Canada
This is not a book for reading. It's a book for practicing. Jared Boyd graciously invites us to practice new ways of being present to God, ourselves, others, and creation, for and with the younger children (or childlike ones) in our lives. Not surprisingly, we are all transformed in the process. By gently making room and time for creative listening, imagination, and revelation of God's very good news of lavish love, children young and old together come to know God by experiencing this love that surpasses knowledge. From his experience as a parent, a pastor, and a beloved child of God, Jared sets forth practical, prayerful, and playful rhythms to tend the spiritual gardens of our children's lives. These habit-forming, love-shaping practices soften and seed the soil of their Christian imaginations, which the Holy Spirit tends, waters, and grows as he conforms them in love to the image of Jesus. Reminding us not to ask children (or anyone) to go where we are not willing to go ourselves, Jared vulnerably does the same, offering clear, creedal, formative structures with room for the dynamic relationship our children will have with God. Far from instilling knowledge about God into our children, Jared invites us to provide opportunities for our children to encounter and be transformed by God's triune love, faithfully embodying that life together with them as children of our heavenly Father. --Cherith Nordling, associate professor of theology, Northern Seminary In this book of depth and whimsy, Jared Boyd inspires the imagination with new ways of engaging children in the work of the Spirit. I will be using this book for years to come, not only with the ministry leaders I teach, but with my own children! Jared's book speaks to a deep need felt within the church and within the lives of parents to help our children learn new and creative ways to engage with what the Holy Spirit is doing in their lives and in the world today. The result is a book that is practical and reflective: a deep reflection on a way of approaching the inner spiritual life of children. --Beth M. Stovell, assistant professor of Old Testament, Ambrose University, national catalyst, Vineyard Formation (Theological and Spiritual Formation), Vineyard Canada
Author Information
Jared Patrick Boyd is a pastor (Vineyard USA), spiritual director, and founder of the Order of Sustainable Faith, a missional monastic order for the twenty-first century. He is the author of Invitations Commitments: A Rule of Life. He and his wife have four daughters, and are planting Franklinton Abbey, a new faith community on the west side of Columbus, Ohio.
