Practicing the Way with John Mark Comer

Last week, John Mark walked us through Jesus teaching us how to pray. This week, we learn why we pray. In this teaching, John Mark covers Jesus' teaching and parable on prayer in Luke 11 to show that Jesus sees prayer differently. He believes that prayer is a way to collaborate with God to create good in the world. John Mark also challenges our preconceptions of prayer by talking through Jesus...

How should we pray? For most of us, prayer is a weak point in our apprenticeship to Jesus, and it's hard to do in the digital age. But Jesus made prayer a consistent part of His lifestyle, and it didn't seem to be a chore for Him. In this message, John Mark breaks down the practice of prayer. After defining prayer and explaining why it is so hard for many of us, John Mark explains what the...

Our families of origin and past experiences impact every human, both for bad and for good. In this teaching, John Mark explores the nature of blessing throughout the Bible and God's plan to bring blessing to the whole world, while showing how blessings are passed from one generation to the next. Because of the influence that we can have and our authority to bless, John Mark invites us to partn...

Our family of origin and past experiences shape our present. And past hurt and trauma don't go away on their own. They need to be dealt with, or these hurts and traumas will emerge in unhealthy ways as we try to cope with our pain. So how do we deal with our past so that we can move forward in our apprenticeship to Jesus? In this teaching, John Mark shows us why it is important to deal with ou...

Why is it so difficult for us to be alone with God? Many believers struggle to practice silence and solitude, and others outright avoid it. This practice often evokes discomfort because it forces us to address the hard emotions we'd often like to ignore, whether it's loneliness, anxiety, or fear. This week, John Mark discusses these issues. Through the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19, we fin...

Do you ever feel like your life is too busy, your schedule is too jammed, and your soul is overly hurried? You aren't alone: our culture is constantly pressing us to move at unsustainable speeds. So how do we "unhurry" our souls? Is there a practice from the way of Jesus, a time-tested way of living, that would set us up to thrive right in the middle of all the chaos of modern society?...

"If you want to experience the life of Jesus, you have to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus." In Matthew 11v28-30, Jesus offers a new yoke to his disciples. In this message, John Mark breaks down what it means to pick up the yoke of Jesus and adopt His lifestyle: taking up the easy yoke of Jesus means that we need to slow down. In light of this, John Mark explains how hurry is opposed to the wa...

In Luke 9:23, Jesus tells His disciples "if anyone wishes to come follow Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me." In this episode, John Mark unpacks this Scripture, telling us that the cost of discipleship is to die to ourselves every day. Self-denial is not only challenging; it also runs against the prevailing cultural winds of self-fulfillment. But by overcom...

Without the Holy Spirit, we will never be transformed to the degree we ache for and realize our full potential because willpower isn’t enough. This week, John Mark shows us the role the Holy Spirit plays in our transformation and the importance of partnering with Him in our apprenticeship to Jesus. Through this teaching, we learn about the person of the Holy Spirit and how walking by the Spirit br...

Community is non-optional for disciples of Jesus. But in our modern world, it is easy to mistake our connectivity with community. In this teaching, John Mark communicates the importance of community and how we, as disciples of Jesus, are called to live life with others. But community is more than a command: it is the context where we are transformed, exposing what’s actually inside of us and encou...

We know practicing the way of Jesus is important, but what exactly do we practice? In this teaching, John Mark drills down on the what and the how behind the practices of Jesus, drawing on the wisdom of the spiritual disciplines. The practices of Jesus, John Mark tells us, are ways to help us live out the lifestyle of Jesus. By “training hard” we can make it easier to be forgiving, kind, patient,...

How do we transform our lives to be like Jesus? In this mini-series, How We Change, John Mark lays out how transformation into the image of Jesus takes place: through teaching, practice, community, and the Holy Spirit. This first teaching focuses on teaching and practice. John Mark shows that teaching is meant to counter the stories we believe about our lives. Practice, on the other hand, is to co...

The end goal of our apprenticeship to Jesus is to do what He did. In this teaching, John Mark gives the historical background of discipleship and shows through the scriptures that Jesus’s intention was for His disciples to become like Him all along. By sharing some of his best practices, such as identifying your stage of discipleship, finding community, and starting with the basics, John Mark chal...

“Who are you becoming?” Are we conforming to the world, or being transformed to become like Jesus? In this next installment of the Practicing the Way vision series, John Mark discusses the call of Jesus for His students to become like their master, as well as how teaching, practice, community, and the Holy Spirit combine to help us practice and live the way of Jesus. Key Scripture Passages: Luke 6...

How do we abide? It seems straightforward, but we often struggle to put it into practice. This week, John Mark tackles this problem as we continue in the Practicing the Way vision series. In this episode, John Mark teaches about the importance of spending time with Jesus. Using key scriptures and church history examples to give a tangible vision of how to “practice the presence of God,” John Mark...

Have you ever wanted to have the abundant life of Jesus? In this new series, John Mark outlines the what, how, and why behind Practicing the Way. For the first episode, John Mark outlines the cultural context behind Jesus's identity as a first-century rabbi, and what that means for us as His followers as we practice being with Jesus, becoming like Jesus, and doing what Jesus did. Key Scripture...