About Bake & Pray
The Bake & Pray method was developed by baker and practical theologian Kendall Vanderslice to help individuals learn to bake bread as a form of prayer.
Our workshops and retreats illuminate the spiritual parallels woven into the bread making process, as well as the role of bread in Scripture and Christian tradition.
Our Pillars
01
Bread never becomes bread apart from long periods of rest. The Bake & Pray method begins from a posture of rest, asking how God might shape and form us when we slow down.
Rest
02
Bread is at once incredibly simple and infinitely complex. If we remain curious, we will always have more to learn. Our goal then is not to master bread baking, but to foster endless curiosity about what God might still teach us as we bake.
Curiosity
03
If we come to our baking from a posture of both rest and curiosity, we are freed from the endless quest for perfection. Instead, we can find joy in the process of baking itself, learning more every time we get our hands in dough.
Joy
Our Story
The Bake & Pray method was developed by baker and practical theologian Kendall Vanderslice.
While working as a professional baker, Kendall would rush from work to church each Sunday—receiving Communion with bread dough still stuck to her arms. She began to question what the bread she spent her week baking had to do with the bread pressed into her palm at church.
Over time, she began to see both as tangible reminders that God was with her and that God cared.
After leaving the restaurant industry in 2016, Kendall turned back to bread for comfort and for prayer while discerning what to do next. She began teaching bread baking workshops in churches in the Boston area. While a student at Duke Divinity School, she further developed the theological framework behind these events.
In 2020, she introduced a virtual version of the workshop, which made the program available to churches worldwide. In 2021, she began traveling the country to teach in churches, schools, and retreat centers.
Her book, Bake & Pray: Liturgies and Recipes for Baking Bread as a Spiritual Practice released in 2024. That same year, Kendall began training additional facilitators so that the Bake & Pray workshop might be accessible to churches of all sizes and budgets.
Interested in hosting an event?
We’d love to bring a Bake & Pray instructor to your church, school, organization, or retreat center! Fill out the form below and we will get back to you within three business days.