THE CIRCLE MAKER

I grew up in and still attend a church that emphasizes logic and reason over emotions. It is what could be classified as non-denominational non-charismatic non-liturgical but similar to reformed except we don’t baptize infants. I guess we enjoy saying what we’re not! Haha! The church was not always this way, but for the past 17 or so years of my life, study and Scripture have been emphasized over emotion and prayer. I think it’s really sad that churches often fall into one extreme or another, but that’s a discussion for another time. Because of my background, the majority of resources that I’ve read and that were recommended to me have been weighty, theological, and intellectual in nature. But if I really want to study prayer, I figured it would be best to get a taste of the charismatic side of things. So here is my book review of Mark Batterson’s The Circle Maker.

Disclaimer, if you know me personally and are reading this blog, please don’t be concerned that my doctrinal beliefs are straying from biblical theology. And think for a moment that I felt the need to write a disclaimer. Please keep reading and keep an open mind. I admit, I had my doubts, but this book did change how I pray.

The Circle Maker is an encouragement to pray consistently. Batterson makes no claims to be describing the philosophy or theology behind prayer. His goal was to inspire people by hearing stories about God working through prayer in the lives of believers. And he achieves that goal. His whole idea of calling prayer circle making is based on a story. And he knows it and doesn’t claim it to be Scripture. It is so inspiring to hear story after story after story in his life and in the lives of others in which God worked in amazing ways through the prayers of people.

Scripture is throughout the book but definitely more in passing. The only place I felt it was being taken out of context was the parable of the persistent widow, but I also was taught his beliefs on that parable for the first 20 years of my life. The parable isn’t really about prayer. But to explain that feels like a future blog post so that’s all I’ll say for now. There was also one bit in the last chapter that I don’t agree with because I don’t think gifts are used in that way, but otherwise everything seemed legit and nothing was contrary to the gospel.

There were some things that would make me cautious of recommending this book. Batterson loved catchy little phrases and sometimes they were fluffy or cliche or describing God a little too anthropomorphically for my taste. If quoted out of context, he could sound unbiblical. He also uses the words “goals”, “dreams”, “destiny”, and others in ways I’m not comfortable with. That probably has more to do with my background than that he was using them in an unbiblical way. Often, I would read a sentence and do a cringy skeptical face until I kept reading and things were clarified. I was surprised at how he described “praying through”. Batterson basically uses the phrase to encourage believers to continue steadfastly in prayer. I’ve always heard that to “pray through” meant praying until one spoke in tongues.

I’m really glad I read this book. I would not recommend it to a younger Christian because Batterson’s ideas could be taken the wrong way. But I would recommend it to a believer who is grounded in her faith and is looking for ways to grow. This book helped me better understand charismatics and reminded me that they aren’t all unbiblical. Also, just because someone is part of a mega church does not mean they are wrong.

The book also gave me a renewed perspective on prayer. Because I have a high view of God’s sovereignty I use “trusting it to God’s will” as an excuse to quit praying for something. God is so good that often I just go about my day not acknowledging Him because I’m in the mindset of letting God do all the work. But that’s not how the Bible says we should pray. It says we should pray without ceasing and to ask persistently knowing our heavenly Father is working all things for good (Eph. 6:18, 1 Thess. 5:17, Rom. 12:12).

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