Holy Play: The Joyful Adventure of Unleashing Your Divine Purpose

What If Your Purpose Is Not God′s But Yours?

"[Holy Play is] an engaging provocative counterweight to the popular idea that God has predetermined a unique, singular purpose for each human life."
Publishers Weekly

"I am so excited by this book! Kirk Byron Jones has the gift of opening up a world to you. Get ready for an honest, light–filled, and delicious conversation that will change your life. The love and joy of Kirk Byron Jones′s God just jumps off the pages of this book and into your heart and bloodstream. If you′re ready to play, read Holy Play!"
Tama J. Kieves, author, This Time I Dance!: Creating the Work You Love

"Beautifully written, with compelling illustrative stories woven throughout, Holy Play gently and profoundly challenges us to expand our notions of God′s purpose for our lives.At the same time as he challenges us to grow up and become adult partners with God, Kirk Jones invites us to rediscover our childlike sense of play.Holy Play leads the reader into what it means both to ′enter the kingdom of God as a child′ and to grow beyond ′merely drinking milk to digesting meat.′"
Margaret Benefiel, author of Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations

"Kirk Jones, in his wonderfully uplifting new book, Holy Play, helps us rethink our understandings of purpose, ourselves, and God. You′ll be thrilled by what Reverend Jones has to say, and if you listen closely to your intuition, I have no doubt it will urge you to ′Read this book.′"
Lynn Robinson, author, Divine Intuition and Trust Your Gut

Preface.

1. The Tyranny and Triumph of Choosing.

2. The Anatomy of Stuckness.

3. The Divine Adventure.

4. Our Great Beloved Partner.

5. The Wild Thrill of Wide–Open Possibility.

6. Not Just Creature but Creator.

7. Three Great Creative Powers.

8. Dreaming Your Way to Purpose.

9. Joyfully Playing Your Dreams.

Notes.

The Author.

Index.

Kirk Byron Jones, D. Min., Ph.D. is a popular speaker, author, professor at Andover–Newton Theological School, and former pastor of churches in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.

Determining one′s calling in life can be an exuberant process of mining one′s deepest desires that delights the God who wishes to inspire our choices, not dictate them. That is the central message of this engaging but evanescent meditation by Jones, an author (The Jazz of Preaching ) and founding minister of Beacon Light Baptist Church in New Orleans. Challenging the view (popularized by megachurch pastor Rick Warren in The Purpose–Driven Life) that vocational discernment is all about tapping into God′s unique purpose for one′s life, Jones claims instead that "we are called to join God in co–creating purpose and life itself." Readers are encouraged to discover how to playfully and creatively join with God in forging their path. Suffused with autobiographical morsels and references to Bible stories as well as a plethora of quotations, the book includes chapters on topics like "The Anatomy of Stuck–ness" and "Dreaming Your Way to Purpose." For readers eager to pursue their own vocational discernment, Jones provides chapter–ending questions and exercises. While the message of this volume could probably have been compressed into a sermon or an anthology chapter, it does pose a provocative counterweight to the popular idea that God has predetermined a unique, singular purpose for each human life.(Feb.) ( Publishers Weekly, October 30, 2006)