Brian Zahnd’s Abrahamic Dream – And What It Means For the Church

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of Brian Zahnd’s brand new memoir Water To Wine. Brian has been gracious enough to let me share portions from each chapter over the next couple months. This chapter tells the story of three dreams BZ had during his water-to-wine journey, and this selection focuses on the first: a dream about searching for the faith of Abraham in the “epicenter of capitalism,” New York City.

At one point in the dream I found myself following the crowd – which rarely is the way to go – and being led into a big Christian conference.

It had all the things Americans like best – it was big, loud, exciting, and most of all “practical.” The worship was entertaining. The sermons were “applicable to your life.” What was being offered were things that you could “use.” I knew this world well. But the faith of Abraham was not found there. So I left. It doesn’t take the dream interpretation skills of Daniel to get the point. I was in the process of leaving modern pragmatic agenda-based Christianity…but for what?

Back outside I began to take streets less traveled, quieter streets. That’s where I found the bookstore. The difference between the raucous conference and the quiet bookstore could not have been more striking. A few years ago I found a used bookstore in Vancouver that was very much like the one in my dreams. Tall shelves with narrow aisles that made you feel like you were in a maze made of books. In the back of the store of my dream, I found Abraham himself – sitting among piles of old prayer books with tears in his eyes. He knew what I was looking for. He talked to me about faith as prayer.

But it was a different kind of prayer than I had known – it wasn’t agenda-based prayer. It wasn’t prayer as a form of God-management. It wasn’t prayer as a practical tool. It wasn’t acquisitive prayer. It was prayer as faith itself – the orientation of the soul toward God. This was prayer for properly forming the human soul.

In my dream Abraham (in the guise of Rabbi Heschel) explained to me that the faith I was looking for could only be found in prayer, but it was the kind of prayer I knew little about. This is why I needed prayer books.

I needed the ancient wisdom of the saints and sages who knew how to pray well.

I needed the well crafted prayers of the historic church to properly form my soul.

What I could not find in the conferences and conventions of Christian pop culture, I would find in the practice of prayer shaped by neglected prayer books.

[Get Water To Wine on Amazon or wherever books are sold.]

Brian Zahnd is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church, a non-denominational church in St. Joseph, Missouri. He is also the author of several books, including A Farewell To Mars and Beauty Will Save the World, and the brand new memoir Water To Wine. Follow him on Facebook & Twitter.