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The gospel according to Jabez

A Christian prayer book tops the secular bestseller lists. But is that good?

By Al Hsu

As far as the Christian publishing industry is concerned, this is the year of Jabez. Bruce Wilkinson’s The Prayer of Jabez has become the hottest Christian book since the Left Behind juggernaut, selling over 8 million copies in the last year and a half.

The sequel, Secrets of the Vine, is off to a quick start with some 3.5 million in print and 2.2 million sold -- and more on the way. Published by Multnomah, both books have landed at the top of the bestseller lists for The New York Times and Publishers Weekly as well as Barnes & Noble and Borders.

At this summer’s annual Christian Booksellers Association convention, Jabez was named the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association’s Book of the Year for being the book that Christian retailers most enjoyed selling in the year 2000. In a textbook case of brand extension, new products have been developed: The Prayer of Jabez Devotional, The Prayer of Jabez for Teens, The Prayer of Jabez for Kids, and The Prayer of Jabez for Little Ones children’s board book.

Gift companies have launched “Got Jabez?” promotions, touting the latest development – Jabez junk. The once-obscure prayer from I Chronicles 4:9-10 is now emblazoned everywhere “WWJD?” used to be – on T-shirts, coffee mugs, neckties, bookmarks, framed prints. There are even “Jabez fish” in which the familiar fish symbol has within it not the name of Jesus or the Greek ichthus, but rather “Jabez.”

During the CBA convention’s Sunday morning worship service, Wilkinson recounted the story of his 30-year fascination with the Jabez prayer. Expounding on the prayer’s petitions that God would “bless me indeed” and “enlarge my territory,” Wilkinson challenged Christian bookstores to double their sales volume in the next year. He argued that 3 percent or 5 percent or 12 percent growth was too modest a goal, since secular stores could accomplish that without the power of God. To double sales would be humanly impossible, so its actualization would be evidence of the hand of God.

Likewise, Wilkinson challenged the Christian publishing industry to reclaim the New York Times bestseller lists. Just as The Prayer of Jabez has pushed aside Tuesdays with Morrie and Who Moved My Cheese? so too should Christian bestsellers replace the Stephen King and Nora Roberts novels of the world.

The problem of Jabez

Wilkinson’s call to action echoes many of the major themes of contemporary evangelical Christianity. It stands in the historic tradition of American religious history – activist, entrepreneurial, mission-oriented and evangelistic. This evangelical impulse reflects its roots in the pioneering spirit of 18th- and 19th-century frontier revivalism and the post-World War II launch of parachurch ministries. Such ebullient optimism has made conservative Protestant Christianity one of the most significant religious movements in Western history.

However, Wilkinson’s Jabez movement also embodies the greatest flaws and weaknesses of American evangelicalism.

It is individualistic to the core, emphasizing the private and personal relationship with God to the marginalization of the church’s corporate voice and witness. It is no mistake that the Lord’s Prayer is prayed communally, calling upon our Father for our daily bread and the forgiveness of our sins. Jabez, on the other hand, asks God to bless me and enlarge my territory. It does not call Christians to community, to link arms together in shared purpose or organizational solidarity. While it is true that churches and Bible study groups often gather to discuss the book, the focus is on individual believers applying the prayer in isolation, each seeking out his or her own particular pursuits.

Critics have also been quick to point out that Jabez is shamelessly self-centered and blessing-focused, just like the earlier prosperity gospel and positive thinking movements. The Jabez approach can become mechanistic, as if a rote prayer could provide the secret formula to trigger God’s response. This plays into the human tendency to seek how-to quick fixes, to escape the hard work of Christian discipleship with a magic bullet that will create blessing.

Wouldn't it be great if the lifelong challenge of Christian discipleship could be reduced to a 29-word prayer in a 96-page book? Particularly telling is that a preliminary working subtitle of the book was “How to Get God to Bless Your Life.” (The final subtitle was changed to “Breaking Through to the Blessed Life.”)

While Christian discipleship does offer benefits to the believer, such a presentation risks distorting the Christian message if it is not balanced with calls to self-denial, obedience and relinquishment of one’s personal agenda. Naturally, monastic treatises on austerity and simplicity have not been bestsellers. They go against the grain of American success and self-indulgence.

Spiritual territory

The Jabez prayer echoes the evangelical tendency toward triumphalism. Wilkinson assumes that filling the New York Times bestseller lists with Christian books will be a major step toward reclaiming a Christian America. But this repeats the past attempts at Christianizing America from the top down rather than the bottom up. We do not increase Christian influence merely by increasing the supply of Christian materials. We must also cultivate the “demand” through evangelizing and discipling people into growing, maturing Christians.

Another critique is that Jabez is too other-worldly and overly spiritual in orientation. The parody The Mantra of Jabez by Douglas Jones (Canon Press) points out that Wilkinson gives the “enlarge my territory” clause a decidedly spiritual spin, even though the original context specifically applied to expanding real estate holdings and broadening physical borders. The irony is that Wilkinson spiritualizes the territory, neglecting the tangible ways Christians could minister to their communities, while many readers will translate the petition for blessing into a this-worldly desire for material benefits.

Ultimately Jabez simply reflects the American ethos of progress and optimism, which should make Christians suspicious. The hope that the 20th century would be the Christian century turned out to be naïve and mistaken. And yet many contemporary American Christians continue to assume that God’s blessing is primarily discerned in growth and increase, whether through numerical figures or revenue. We are less likely to accept what Christians have affirmed throughout church history -- that God is often more present through loss, not gain; through failure rather than success; through suffering instead of blessing.

The way of the Cross calls us to decrease rather than increase, to give up our holdings rather than expand our territory.

Jabez or Jesus?

A further question is whether The Prayer of Jabez uses responsible methods of biblical interpretation. Does the mere record of an obscure Old Testament prayer warrant daily recitation? After all, Scripture includes many passages that do not affirm Christian truths, such as the misguided advice from Job’s friends. When in doubt, we should look to clearer passages like Paul’s exhortations to prayer or Jesus’ statement, “This then is how you should pray.”

To that end, at least three publishers are rushing to press with Jabez-like mini-books on the prayer of Jesus. These expositions of the Lord’s Prayer, while copycatting the Jabez format and brevity, seek to take readers beyond Jabez to a more reliable guide. Hank Hanegraaff’s The Prayer of Jesus (Word) points out that the Jabez prayer is limited to supplication, neglecting the other more relational aspects of prayer such as adoration, confession and thanksgiving. The purely transactional emphasis of the Jabez prayer should give readers pause.

James Mulholland, in his The Prayer of Jesus (Harper San Francisco), is more biting. “The prayer of Jabez isn’t the prayer Jesus taught us to pray,” he writes.

“Indeed, in significant ways the prayer of Jabez is counter to the heart of the gospel and the priorities of Jesus. It represents the advancement of self and the resistance to self-denial. . . . While Mr. Wilkinson has tried to redeem the words of Jabez, he has only succeeded in fanning into flame the embers of a prosperity theology many had hoped was finally dying. He forgot the reason Jesus didn’t teach his disciples the prayer of Jabez. Jabez got it wrong.”

Beyond Jabez

As is the case with other popular Christian bestsellers in recent years, perhaps we can best view the Jabez phenomenon as an opportunity for further discipleship. Its popularity is evidence that our materialistic culture, while continuing to be self-centered, is at least willing to look outside itself to the Christian God to satisfy its longings.

Over the last decade, New Age books like The Celestine Prophecy and Embraced by the Light were gradually replaced on Wal-Mart shelves by the Left Behind novels. While these are not great literature by any stretch of the imagination, at least Christian content is getting visibility before a wider non-Christian audience.

Likewise, The Prayer of Jabez is now stocked as a bestseller in all major bookstore chains and many department stores, airport newsstands and discount retailers across the country. We should rejoice that unchurched seekers may come across them and be introduced to Christian truth.

But it should not stop there. This little 96-page book should be seen as merely an hors d’oeuvre that whets readers’ appetites for more meaty offerings. We should not be content that Jabez readers merely keep praying the prayer of Jabez for years on end. Indeed, if they do not progress beyond repeating this prayer, something is wrong.

Rather, we should hope that Jabez is only a stepping stone to the full range and depth of Christian teaching. The true territory to be expanded is the reader’s commitment to Christ. If we are truly interested in God expanding our territory, we should harbor no false expectations of prosperity or pain-free living. We will instead be convinced that to follow the way of Jesus is to walk a path of both crucifixion and resurrection.

- Al Hsu (ahsu@ivpress.com) is the books columnist for FaithWorks. He lives in Downers Grove, Illinois.