The Barber Who Wanted to Pray

This imaginative tale, based on a true story, begins one evening with Mr. McFarland leading family devotions. When his daughter asks him how she should pray, Mr. McFarland shares a 500-year-old story―a story about a barber and his famous customer.

Master Peter is a barber well known to all in his village. One day, when Martin Luther the Reformer walks into his shop, the barber musters up the courage to ask the outlawed monk how to pray. Dr. Luther responds by writing a letter to the barber (a letter that we know today as the book, A Simple Way to Pray!). The barber’s life is changed as he encounters a model for prayer by using the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Apostles’ Creed.

R. C. Sproul’s beautifully illustrated story will engage children and help them learn to pray according to the Bible. Dr. Sproul’s unique gift for explaining complex truths will make this a treasured book to be returned to time after time―a delight for both children and their parents!

R. C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, an international Christian discipleship organization located near Orlando, Florida. He was also first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Florida; first president of Reformation Bible College; and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. His radio program, Renewing Your Mind, is still broadcast daily on hundreds of radio stations around the world and can also be heard online. Sproul contributed dozens of articles to national evangelical publications, spoke at conferences, churches, colleges, and seminaries around the world, and wrote more than one hundred books, including The Holiness of God; Chosen by God; and Everyone’s a Theologian. He also served as general editor of the Reformation Study Bible.

T. Lively Fluharty is an accomplished illustrator whose artwork has appeared in such publications as Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Focus on the Family. His work has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators, Communications Arts, and Spectrum. Fluharty illustrated The Barber Who Wanted to Pray and The Boy and the Ocean, as well as Fool Moon Rising which he cowrote with his wife, Kristi.