New Prayer Books Aim at Nation of Pray-ers
By Marcia Z. Nelson -- Publishers Weekly, 4/20/2009 10:26:00 AM
In time for the National Day of Prayer on May 7, two new and very different books on prayer enter a crowded category. The 7 Great Prayers for a Lifetime of Hope & Blessings (Vanguard, Apr.) springs from the up-to-the-minute story of Paul and Tracey McManus, who lost their jobs, savings and home. Their financial crisis, however, was ahead of today’s falling curve; they ran aground in the dot-com bust. Starting with a prayer of gratitude for what they did have, they began praying and, helped by God, the postal service and the Internet, generated a phenomenon: they sold 60,000 self-published books to 163 countries and got more than 1.6 million downloads of their prayers from a Web site Paul put together. The numbers got the attention of Vanguard, which relaunched the book this month, backed by a six-figure national marketing campaign, including direct response TV on major networks and national print and radio advertising. The prayers are inspirational and nondenominational; the McManuses have heard from people and clergy of different faiths throughout the world. Paul McManus has studied world religions and mentions the influence of Norman Vincent Peale, but he considers himself an average person who prays. “That’s what really resonates with people who read our book and use our prayer,” he said. “We’re not all about theology. We’re keeping it really, really simple.”
Suzette Caldwell also teaches from her experience with prayer in Praying to Change Your Life: A Guide to Productive Prayer (Destiny Image, Apr.). Caldwell is a breast cancer survivor and the wife of Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, senior pastor of the large and influential Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston and a spiritual adviser to both former President George Bush and President Barack Obama. Suzette Caldwell serves as associate pastor at Windsor Village and is also president and chairman of the Prayer Institute, which promotes prayer, in Houston. Her prayer model is based on the Lord’s Prayer, which is basic for Christians. “Jesus is the one that presented this,” she said. “To me it made logical sense that we pick up this model.” Caldwell’s spiritual network includes 400 congregations in ONE (One Nation Empowered), which offered a prayer for political leaders shortly before Obama was inaugurated. To promote the book, she is doing signings and has appeared on Christian media.
