Abiding in Amen on the Pivot Podcast

 

I was delighted to join the Faith+Lead team from Luther Seminary for a recent episode of the Pivot Podcast with host Dwight Zscheile. We had a rich conversation about prayer, pastoral ministry, and themes from my book, Abiding in Amen: Prayer in a Secular Age. 

One of the central claims of the book is that prayer is not primarily something we do for God, but something God is already doing. In a culture that turns everything into a project to be managed, improved, and optimized, prayer can easily become another burden—another spiritual discipline we feel guilty for not doing well enough. But the Christian tradition offers a different vision. Prayer is first God's action before it is ours. We are invited to participate in a reality that precedes us. 

Dwight and I discussed why so many pastors and church leaders carry guilt about their prayer lives, how the logic of optimization has reshaped our understanding of spirituality, and what it might mean to become a genuinely praying church. We also explored Paul's call to "pray without ceasing" and why prayer may be one of the few practices that can free us from the relentless hamster wheel of achievement and productivity. 

I'm grateful to Dwight and the entire Faith+Lead team for the invitation and for the thoughtful conversation. If you've ever struggled with prayer, felt discouraged by your prayer life, or wondered whether there might be another way of understanding prayer in our secular age, I hope you'll give the episode a listen.