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Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus, Become Like Him, Do As He Did
The author of the international bestseller The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry calls us to rediscover the path that leads to a deeper life with God .
“One of the most important books I have read in a decade . . . If we would all follow in this way, our lives would change and the world would change.”—Jennie Allen, author of Get Out of Your Head and Find Your People
We are constantly being formed by the world around us. To be formed by Jesus will require us to become his apprentice.
To live by what the first Christian disciples called a Rule of Life—a set of practices and relational rhythms that slow us down and open up space in our daily lives for God to do what only God can do—transforms the deepest parts of us to become like him.
This introduction to spiritual formation is full of John Mark Comer’s trademark mix of theological substance and cultural insight as well as practical wisdom on developing your own Rule of Life.
These ancient practices have much to offer us. By learning to rearrange our days, we can follow the Way of Jesus. We can be with him. Become like him. And do as he did.
“One of the most important books I have read in a decade . . . If we would all follow in this way, our lives would change and the world would change.”—Jennie Allen, author of Get Out of Your Head and Find Your People
We are constantly being formed by the world around us. To be formed by Jesus will require us to become his apprentice.
To live by what the first Christian disciples called a Rule of Life—a set of practices and relational rhythms that slow us down and open up space in our daily lives for God to do what only God can do—transforms the deepest parts of us to become like him.
This introduction to spiritual formation is full of John Mark Comer’s trademark mix of theological substance and cultural insight as well as practical wisdom on developing your own Rule of Life.
These ancient practices have much to offer us. By learning to rearrange our days, we can follow the Way of Jesus. We can be with him. Become like him. And do as he did.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 16, 2024
7480 people are currently reading
39271 people want to read
About the author
John Mark Comer
47 books4,253 followersJohn Mark Comer is the New York Times bestselling author of Practicing the Way, Live No Lies, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, God Has a Name, and three more. His podcasts, John Mark Comer Teachings and Rule of Life, have been ranked on top religion and spirituality podcast charts in the U.S. and U.K.
He's also the founder of Practicing the Way, a simple, beautiful way to integrate spiritual formation into your church or small group. After serving as the pastor for teaching and vision at Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, for nearly two decades, John Mark and his family now reside in California, where he serves as a teacher in residence at Vintage Church LA.
He's also the founder of Practicing the Way, a simple, beautiful way to integrate spiritual formation into your church or small group. After serving as the pastor for teaching and vision at Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, for nearly two decades, John Mark and his family now reside in California, where he serves as a teacher in residence at Vintage Church LA.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,063 reviews
May 27, 2024
I liked the concepts in this book and the huge number of quotes. It was a little too modern for me in that the narrative felt sparse. Still it would be a great graduate gift book. I also have some niggling concerns that I can’t quite articulate to myself.
September 4, 2023
“In both my personal and pastoral experience, the problem is not that people don’t want to change (most do) or aren’t trying to change (most are); it’s that they do not know how to change. We don’t have a good grasp on how the human soul goes from spiritual birth to spiritual maturity. So we have a lot of spiritual adolescents, few elders.”
This is the problem John Mark Comer seeks to address in Practicing the Way, and he thoroughly succeeds. This book is the single best synthesis of the spiritual journey of being a disciple of Jesus that I have ever read. John Mark Comer brings together a historical perspective of discipleship with the wisdom of how we live this out in the modern world, and it is a brilliant work that will become an invaluable resource to the church in this age. As someone who has listened to many of John Mark’s teachings and read his other books, I view this as the compilation of much of his best work. To anyone outside of the Christian faith, this book is an invitation to take up a life of discipleship to Jesus, and to the church, it is an invitation to the rich depths of experiencing eternal life through knowing Jesus. John Mark balances the beauty of the vision of following Jesus with the immense practicality of crafting a rule of life in community, and the resources he gives for this in the back of the book are worth their weight in gold. This is a book that I will be coming back to many times, and I look forward to its official release to be able to share it with more people.
Thank you to Waterbrook/Multnomah and NetGalley for this advanced copy.
This is the problem John Mark Comer seeks to address in Practicing the Way, and he thoroughly succeeds. This book is the single best synthesis of the spiritual journey of being a disciple of Jesus that I have ever read. John Mark Comer brings together a historical perspective of discipleship with the wisdom of how we live this out in the modern world, and it is a brilliant work that will become an invaluable resource to the church in this age. As someone who has listened to many of John Mark’s teachings and read his other books, I view this as the compilation of much of his best work. To anyone outside of the Christian faith, this book is an invitation to take up a life of discipleship to Jesus, and to the church, it is an invitation to the rich depths of experiencing eternal life through knowing Jesus. John Mark balances the beauty of the vision of following Jesus with the immense practicality of crafting a rule of life in community, and the resources he gives for this in the back of the book are worth their weight in gold. This is a book that I will be coming back to many times, and I look forward to its official release to be able to share it with more people.
Thank you to Waterbrook/Multnomah and NetGalley for this advanced copy.
January 24, 2024
What does it mean to be a Christian? Ask 10 different people this question, and you may get 10 different answers that might range from political affiliation to church attendance. For this reason, John Mark Comer begins his latest book, Practicing the Way, with defining the terms.
Because "Christian" can mean different things to different people, he lays out a definition of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. You'll have to read the book for yourself for the details, but the short answer is found in the subtitle: Be with Jesus, Become like him, and Do as he did.
Basically, being a disciple or a follower of Jesus impacts not just what we do on Sundays, but our entire way of life. Therefore, as followers of Jesus, we must evaluate what we are being formed by, and who we are becoming. Does it look like Jesus? Comer argues that we are all being formed by something and into someone. The questions are, formed by what, and into who?
What I love about John Mark Comer's style is that he can pull from so many different sources (he's a big Dallas Willard fan) but somehow bring them all together to share a familiar concept in a new and thought-provoking way. If you've read any of John Mark Comer's previous work, this will feel familiar, but not repetitive. If you're new to his writing, this is a great place to start.
The only thing I would have preferred to be different in this book is how it ended. He makes the case throughout that spiritual formation is not formulaic, but the note he ended on felt that way. That being said, I think there is a lot of good here and would recommend it as a launching point for intentional thinking about who we are becoming over time.
Thank you to Netgalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for the advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.
Because "Christian" can mean different things to different people, he lays out a definition of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. You'll have to read the book for yourself for the details, but the short answer is found in the subtitle: Be with Jesus, Become like him, and Do as he did.
Basically, being a disciple or a follower of Jesus impacts not just what we do on Sundays, but our entire way of life. Therefore, as followers of Jesus, we must evaluate what we are being formed by, and who we are becoming. Does it look like Jesus? Comer argues that we are all being formed by something and into someone. The questions are, formed by what, and into who?
What I love about John Mark Comer's style is that he can pull from so many different sources (he's a big Dallas Willard fan) but somehow bring them all together to share a familiar concept in a new and thought-provoking way. If you've read any of John Mark Comer's previous work, this will feel familiar, but not repetitive. If you're new to his writing, this is a great place to start.
The only thing I would have preferred to be different in this book is how it ended. He makes the case throughout that spiritual formation is not formulaic, but the note he ended on felt that way. That being said, I think there is a lot of good here and would recommend it as a launching point for intentional thinking about who we are becoming over time.
Thank you to Netgalley and WaterBrook & Multnomah for the advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.
October 20, 2023
Thank you to Waterbrook/Multnomah and NetGalley for this advanced copy.
"Are you a christian or are you an apprentice," John Mark asks.
Because your answer matters and changes every move you make. Breezing through his introduction and a scattered synopsis of his last two books, Live No Lies,. and The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (which are not essential pre-reads, but highly recommended), we find the core of John Mark's work: more than 7 years of lived communal (and longer personal) experience in a church practicing the Way together in Portland. The habituated rhythms of this community may form the bedrock of proof for John Mark's arguments, but the groundwork is laid using the most relevant of Jesus' teachings, a history of formation, and the best works of countless philosophers, sociologists, scientists, and writers from the past.
John Mark has termed himself a "popularizer" which is an apt statement when half the chapters fill with +70 references to the authors he excavates for us. This tendency to borrow from other thinker's is not a crutch of his writing, but rather the power of it. Seamless, and at times extravagant, weaving of diverse thoughts allow each reader to glean a new voice that best fits their context while discovering prolific voices to follow. A narrative is built from the bones of past work across a myriad of fields.
Practicing the Way leans most heavily into the practices John Mark has done cursory work on in previous books. His framing of a Rule of Life will be familiar to followers of Bridgetown church but revolutionary within this vital Apprenticeship framework provided. Ideas like the "trellis and the vine" and "our working theory of change" paint a picture of a faith that goes beyond Sunday mornings and transcends individualistic, self-help teachings at work today.
The pairing of this read with the blossoming organization of the same name unveils the vanguard of this micro-movement of followers committed to the future of the Church that is not modern, but ancient. It encapsulates the perfect introduction to the world of spiritual formation within a tight package of numerous jumping-off points for the curious reader. It does what even the best deep cuts of JMC's work (looking at you, God Has a Name and Garden City) try to do in answering our day's VITAL question, How do people change? and takes us to the starting point of a journey that can transform faith for the modern disciple of Jesus.
In short: it's very, very good.
"Are you a christian or are you an apprentice," John Mark asks.
Because your answer matters and changes every move you make. Breezing through his introduction and a scattered synopsis of his last two books, Live No Lies,. and The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (which are not essential pre-reads, but highly recommended), we find the core of John Mark's work: more than 7 years of lived communal (and longer personal) experience in a church practicing the Way together in Portland. The habituated rhythms of this community may form the bedrock of proof for John Mark's arguments, but the groundwork is laid using the most relevant of Jesus' teachings, a history of formation, and the best works of countless philosophers, sociologists, scientists, and writers from the past.
John Mark has termed himself a "popularizer" which is an apt statement when half the chapters fill with +70 references to the authors he excavates for us. This tendency to borrow from other thinker's is not a crutch of his writing, but rather the power of it. Seamless, and at times extravagant, weaving of diverse thoughts allow each reader to glean a new voice that best fits their context while discovering prolific voices to follow. A narrative is built from the bones of past work across a myriad of fields.
Practicing the Way leans most heavily into the practices John Mark has done cursory work on in previous books. His framing of a Rule of Life will be familiar to followers of Bridgetown church but revolutionary within this vital Apprenticeship framework provided. Ideas like the "trellis and the vine" and "our working theory of change" paint a picture of a faith that goes beyond Sunday mornings and transcends individualistic, self-help teachings at work today.
The pairing of this read with the blossoming organization of the same name unveils the vanguard of this micro-movement of followers committed to the future of the Church that is not modern, but ancient. It encapsulates the perfect introduction to the world of spiritual formation within a tight package of numerous jumping-off points for the curious reader. It does what even the best deep cuts of JMC's work (looking at you, God Has a Name and Garden City) try to do in answering our day's VITAL question, How do people change? and takes us to the starting point of a journey that can transform faith for the modern disciple of Jesus.
In short: it's very, very good.
June 14, 2024
Really anything that reignites my excitement to follow Jesus is a huge win. Overall, this left me feeling like I wanted to know Jesus more and spend more time with Him. I kept thinking, this would be a great book to pass to someone who first comes to the faith then asks “so now what?” But I was challenged in several areas myself! I always appreciate Comer pushing the spiritual disciplines and giving lots of practical advice in that arena.
In an effort to track random, specific takeaways for my own sake:
- when implementing more prayer, don’t feel bad about working WITH the kind of person I am. If I’m not a sit-in-silence-on-the-ground-for-an-hour person, I can prayer walk and build up the endurance for more solitude. I don’t have to be guilty that I’m a mover to think more clearly for now. I should just start there.
- fasting. I want to think more about this as a nursing & TTC mother. I want to incorporate this discipline somehow? What could that look like?
- always trying to further define sabbath for our family
- i keep thinking “but what about my students and friends caught in deep abuse and suffering??” I know this all still applies in some way. JMC just wasn’t writing a book on suffering, he was writing a work on practicing The Way
- it actually agree with his point that “is this bringing me closer to Jesus?” is a far more productive question than “is this sin?” Ex: asking “is waking up & scrolling Instagram SIN?!” Okay maybe not, but is it bringing me CLOSER to my Heavenly Father? I love the idea that we’re not just trying to avoid dirty sin, we’re trying to be so far above reproach that we’re chasing what would draw us near to Him.
- the idea of a kind of prayer that isn’t actively saying anything but just sitting in God’s presence is a very freeing thought to me. I often don’t have a lot of good words.
- I am very inspired and not scared by JMC’s “rules” for his life (solitude, screen time, etc.) I want more for myself. Thinking about this.
- I do feel like the Lord has been nudging me for a while to wake up earlier and go down to the river we live right along. Need to try this as my “secret place.” And not view going somewhere to “just” pray as a waste of time! I was convicted that if I wasn’t reading a book or exercising (some favorite ways to rest), I almost view that as lost time. So I think God is calling me down to the river just to hear His voice.
In an effort to track random, specific takeaways for my own sake:
- when implementing more prayer, don’t feel bad about working WITH the kind of person I am. If I’m not a sit-in-silence-on-the-ground-for-an-hour person, I can prayer walk and build up the endurance for more solitude. I don’t have to be guilty that I’m a mover to think more clearly for now. I should just start there.
- fasting. I want to think more about this as a nursing & TTC mother. I want to incorporate this discipline somehow? What could that look like?
- always trying to further define sabbath for our family
- i keep thinking “but what about my students and friends caught in deep abuse and suffering??” I know this all still applies in some way. JMC just wasn’t writing a book on suffering, he was writing a work on practicing The Way
- it actually agree with his point that “is this bringing me closer to Jesus?” is a far more productive question than “is this sin?” Ex: asking “is waking up & scrolling Instagram SIN?!” Okay maybe not, but is it bringing me CLOSER to my Heavenly Father? I love the idea that we’re not just trying to avoid dirty sin, we’re trying to be so far above reproach that we’re chasing what would draw us near to Him.
- the idea of a kind of prayer that isn’t actively saying anything but just sitting in God’s presence is a very freeing thought to me. I often don’t have a lot of good words.
- I am very inspired and not scared by JMC’s “rules” for his life (solitude, screen time, etc.) I want more for myself. Thinking about this.
- I do feel like the Lord has been nudging me for a while to wake up earlier and go down to the river we live right along. Need to try this as my “secret place.” And not view going somewhere to “just” pray as a waste of time! I was convicted that if I wasn’t reading a book or exercising (some favorite ways to rest), I almost view that as lost time. So I think God is calling me down to the river just to hear His voice.
February 24, 2024
Very good! It’s funnier and more witty than his other books which I liked. Reads pretty much like a culmination of his most prominent teachings over the years. I am a very active consumer of all things JMC so thats a little bit why I’m rating 4 instead of 5. It wasn’t anything revolutionary or new to me, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t thought provoking and convicting all the same. I feel like I must plug Garden City here because seriously that book changed the trajectory of my walk with God.
Side: shoutout GK Chesterton that’s truly one of my favorite quotes of ALL time.
Side: shoutout GK Chesterton that’s truly one of my favorite quotes of ALL time.
July 10, 2024
John Mark Comer tells his story in a way that brings his ideas to life, making this guide to spiritual formation engaging and accessible.
Comer offers a guide for spiritual growth that starts with being with Jesus, becoming like Him, and then living as He did as a way to advance. His simple, practical style and personal narratives make deep theological ideas both understandable and useful.
Why did I choose to listen to this book?
Because Comer's voice is warm and genuine, it feels like Comer is speaking just to you, encouraging and suggesting the way he lives out what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
You can check the audiobook version available too Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus, Become Like Him, Do As He Did
This is a resource for someone who is interested in hearing more about living a spiritual path that is transformative, personal, and life-giving. This book would be an ideal companion for someone who wants to deepen their spiritual formation.
Comer offers a guide for spiritual growth that starts with being with Jesus, becoming like Him, and then living as He did as a way to advance. His simple, practical style and personal narratives make deep theological ideas both understandable and useful.
Why did I choose to listen to this book?
Because Comer's voice is warm and genuine, it feels like Comer is speaking just to you, encouraging and suggesting the way he lives out what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
You can check the audiobook version available too Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus, Become Like Him, Do As He Did
This is a resource for someone who is interested in hearing more about living a spiritual path that is transformative, personal, and life-giving. This book would be an ideal companion for someone who wants to deepen their spiritual formation.
May 29, 2024
I respect JMC I really do; I own and have read/reread most of his books, but brother is so repetitive 😭 If you’ve read one of his books you’ve read them all. Also he includes quotes in like every other paragraph. They’re really good additions, for sure, and definitely impressive showing he’s done hella research, but makes you wonder if you can say you wrote a book when it’s all other people’s quotes 🤔🤣 It would be one short book if it was just his content lol. EXCITED TO DISCUSS THIS ONE FOR SALT BOOK CLUB WOOHOO! I love the opening quote, “May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi.” (Not his quote someone else’s lmao). OKAY IM DONE. He’s the famous published author king and I’m just a girl who loves a ruthless book review
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May 31, 2025For a thoughtfully written review read https://clearlyreformed.org/is-this-t... by Kevin DeYoung.
September 25, 2024
(pulled this review off for a bit, adding it back now)
Disheartened read.
Reading JMC can feel like muscle confusion, which I appreciate. But I would not recommend this book.
It's not that his "rules" for the Christian life are not helpful. JMC's sincerity comes through, and I do believe he wants to see more growing in their holiness.In many ways, this book can operate like a practice-review, a harmless behavior-check. And to be clear, I think any Christian would benefit from implementing Christ-like behavior!
But what motivates such behavior?
How can one find the strength to be with Jesus, become like him, and do as he did? For JMC, it's sanctification by osmosis and imitation.
But osmosis and mimicry do not earn salvation.
One could implement all nine rules for the rest of their lives and still end up in hell.
JMC is concerned that we overemphasize the death of Christ and ignore the life of Christ. I fear that with glossing over the death of Christ JMC has blockaded some from obtaining the life of Christ. It's Christianity's shell without its heart.
Christ's death is more than just a pattern to model oneself after, it is the climax from which grace, mercy, and power for obedience flow.
You cannot have Romans 6-7 without Romans 3-5.
You cannot have 1 Corinthians 15 without 1 Corinthians 1.
You cannot have "The kingdom of God has come near" without "Repent and believe". (Mark 1:15)
You cannot have resurrection power without the blood of the crucifixion.
By themselves, JMC's nine rules are no better than Islam's five pillars, Buddhism's eightfold path, or even the Ten Commandments.
We preach Christ crucified. And it's penal substitutionary atonement that pardons us, cleanses us, and enables us to walk in obedience with him.
William Cowper's Love Constraining to Obedience nails this:
"No strength of nature can suffice
To serve the Lord aright:
And what she has she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.
How long beneath the Law I lay
In bondage and distress;
I toiled the precept to obey,
But toiled without success.
Then, to abstain from outward sin
Was more than I could do;
Now, if I feel its power within,
I feel I hate it too.
Then all my servile works were done
A righteousness to raise;
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose His ways.
‘What shall I do,’ was then the word,
‘That I may worthier grow?’
‘What shall I render to the Lord?’
Is my inquiry now.
*To see the law by Christ fulfilled
And hear His pardoning voice,*
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice."
Disheartened read.
Reading JMC can feel like muscle confusion, which I appreciate. But I would not recommend this book.
It's not that his "rules" for the Christian life are not helpful. JMC's sincerity comes through, and I do believe he wants to see more growing in their holiness.In many ways, this book can operate like a practice-review, a harmless behavior-check. And to be clear, I think any Christian would benefit from implementing Christ-like behavior!
But what motivates such behavior?
How can one find the strength to be with Jesus, become like him, and do as he did? For JMC, it's sanctification by osmosis and imitation.
But osmosis and mimicry do not earn salvation.
One could implement all nine rules for the rest of their lives and still end up in hell.
JMC is concerned that we overemphasize the death of Christ and ignore the life of Christ. I fear that with glossing over the death of Christ JMC has blockaded some from obtaining the life of Christ. It's Christianity's shell without its heart.
Christ's death is more than just a pattern to model oneself after, it is the climax from which grace, mercy, and power for obedience flow.
You cannot have Romans 6-7 without Romans 3-5.
You cannot have 1 Corinthians 15 without 1 Corinthians 1.
You cannot have "The kingdom of God has come near" without "Repent and believe". (Mark 1:15)
You cannot have resurrection power without the blood of the crucifixion.
By themselves, JMC's nine rules are no better than Islam's five pillars, Buddhism's eightfold path, or even the Ten Commandments.
We preach Christ crucified. And it's penal substitutionary atonement that pardons us, cleanses us, and enables us to walk in obedience with him.
William Cowper's Love Constraining to Obedience nails this:
"No strength of nature can suffice
To serve the Lord aright:
And what she has she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.
How long beneath the Law I lay
In bondage and distress;
I toiled the precept to obey,
But toiled without success.
Then, to abstain from outward sin
Was more than I could do;
Now, if I feel its power within,
I feel I hate it too.
Then all my servile works were done
A righteousness to raise;
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose His ways.
‘What shall I do,’ was then the word,
‘That I may worthier grow?’
‘What shall I render to the Lord?’
Is my inquiry now.
*To see the law by Christ fulfilled
And hear His pardoning voice,*
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice."
February 12, 2025
3.5: Comer embarks with a great goal, gives good advice, but operates with a problematically incomplete motivation.
Jesus is absolutely our rabbi and example but far more importantly: He is our very life. It's not so much: 'do holy things because Christ was holy' but rather 'be holy because Christ has already made you holy'. Become what you already are in Christ.
Now this may seem pretty nitpicky. And I will gladly affirm that Comer is incredibly winsome and orthodox. I really did appreciate his emphasis of how eternal life begins now and that holy living isn't about abstinence but instead fulfillment.
Yet despite his best intentions and sign posting, Practicing the Way implicitly divides believers into two castes: lame old day-to-day Christians, and super spiritual disciples. Thinking he is saying something new, Comer is in fact revisiting a fundamental aspect of American religion which has always been obsessed over elevating the true and pious from the everyday Christian. The lazy from the diligent.
Jesus is absolutely our rabbi and example but far more importantly: He is our very life. It's not so much: 'do holy things because Christ was holy' but rather 'be holy because Christ has already made you holy'. Become what you already are in Christ.
Now this may seem pretty nitpicky. And I will gladly affirm that Comer is incredibly winsome and orthodox. I really did appreciate his emphasis of how eternal life begins now and that holy living isn't about abstinence but instead fulfillment.
Yet despite his best intentions and sign posting, Practicing the Way implicitly divides believers into two castes: lame old day-to-day Christians, and super spiritual disciples. Thinking he is saying something new, Comer is in fact revisiting a fundamental aspect of American religion which has always been obsessed over elevating the true and pious from the everyday Christian. The lazy from the diligent.
Read
September 6, 2025I am allergic to star-rating this book because of Comer's polarizing effect; this is the second book of his that I've read, and the first since he has become something of a phenomenon. Much of it I enjoyed greatly, given that I have similarly striven to cast a wide (and hopefully discerning) net across the Christian inheritance with respect to influences for spiritual formation. Moreover, as someone deeply shaped by the spiritual formation movement and particularly indebted to monastic practices and sensibilities, I am excited that he is helping make these gifts available to a broader audience.
Herein lies Comer's greatest strength: his ability to talk meaningfully and accessibly about the spiritual disciplines from the inside, as one who has clearly been shaped by them over a significant period of time. I couldn't help but think of a number of folks I know who would benefit from his exhortation to "begin where you are, not where you'd like to be" (a slight paraphrase). There is a great kindness here for those of us who are overborne by sin and by the magnitude of our disordered affections, and to whom the spiritual disciplines have been presented as simply, “do this.” “Begin here” is a very Benedictine sentiment, and it is a far better starting point than “do this.” In sum, I'd heartily recommend the last part of the book to anyone who desires stability in living with and through the spiritual disciplines.
My greatest concern about Comer is how significantly he seems to have bifurcated "discipleship/apprenticeship to Christ" and the work of the local church. Undoubtedly some of this is downstream of his upper-west-coast theological milieu, but at points it's hard to tell how much of this is convictional and how much is the angling of his thesis to hit a target audience. Regardless, I am troubled by how the effect of this angling at least implicitly relegates the local body (institutionally, at least) to an auxiliary role in Christian living, rather than recognizing that it should be its hub and center; this aspect of the book would give me pause in recommending the book to newer Christians for fear of devaluing the importance of ecclesial participation and commitment.
Comer is right to diagnose that American Evangelical churches have typically "done discipleship" poorly and have misunderstood its essence; he cites the extremes of conversionism in ecclesial contexts (and its attendant sensibilities) as primary causes for creating the void into which Practicing the Way seeks to speak. But two extremes do not a golden mean make, and Comer's reaction to conversionism and its tendency to create "mediocre" or "undiscipled" Christians unnecessarily widens the divide between "Christians who care about theology" and "Christians who care about formation" – broadly speaking, the two camps of folks who represent Comer's biggest detractors and defenders.
An example of this tendency can be found in Comer's handling of the atonement, where he lays conversionism, et al, at the feet of penal substitution and elevates an example/participation theory as that which is more conducive to apprenticeship to Jesus. I'm all for having a strong example/participation understanding (this has been deeply formative for me recent years), but placing it in opposition to penal substitution seems unnecessary. What is needed (and I guess I'm showing my own convictions here) is a deeper capacity to hold the one alongside the other, to appreciate and integrate historic emphases found in different parts of the Christian tradition without immediately opposing them.
So also with "spiritual formation" and the church. I actually doubt Comer devalues in practice the role of the local church in quite the way his book might imply; he is a former pastor, after all. But I couldn't help but contemplate the potential helpfulness of Comer's gifts in teaching/explaining spiritual disciplines when married to a robust and unapologetic ecclesiology, to an endorsement of Word and Sacrament as the beginnings and ends of all spiritual disciplines, their inherently communal font and telos this side of Jordan. Perhaps this would be a starting point for taking seriously Comer’s many beneficial contributions while keeping in mind that those contributions are not in themselves comprehensive for Christian flourishing.
Herein lies Comer's greatest strength: his ability to talk meaningfully and accessibly about the spiritual disciplines from the inside, as one who has clearly been shaped by them over a significant period of time. I couldn't help but think of a number of folks I know who would benefit from his exhortation to "begin where you are, not where you'd like to be" (a slight paraphrase). There is a great kindness here for those of us who are overborne by sin and by the magnitude of our disordered affections, and to whom the spiritual disciplines have been presented as simply, “do this.” “Begin here” is a very Benedictine sentiment, and it is a far better starting point than “do this.” In sum, I'd heartily recommend the last part of the book to anyone who desires stability in living with and through the spiritual disciplines.
My greatest concern about Comer is how significantly he seems to have bifurcated "discipleship/apprenticeship to Christ" and the work of the local church. Undoubtedly some of this is downstream of his upper-west-coast theological milieu, but at points it's hard to tell how much of this is convictional and how much is the angling of his thesis to hit a target audience. Regardless, I am troubled by how the effect of this angling at least implicitly relegates the local body (institutionally, at least) to an auxiliary role in Christian living, rather than recognizing that it should be its hub and center; this aspect of the book would give me pause in recommending the book to newer Christians for fear of devaluing the importance of ecclesial participation and commitment.
Comer is right to diagnose that American Evangelical churches have typically "done discipleship" poorly and have misunderstood its essence; he cites the extremes of conversionism in ecclesial contexts (and its attendant sensibilities) as primary causes for creating the void into which Practicing the Way seeks to speak. But two extremes do not a golden mean make, and Comer's reaction to conversionism and its tendency to create "mediocre" or "undiscipled" Christians unnecessarily widens the divide between "Christians who care about theology" and "Christians who care about formation" – broadly speaking, the two camps of folks who represent Comer's biggest detractors and defenders.
An example of this tendency can be found in Comer's handling of the atonement, where he lays conversionism, et al, at the feet of penal substitution and elevates an example/participation theory as that which is more conducive to apprenticeship to Jesus. I'm all for having a strong example/participation understanding (this has been deeply formative for me recent years), but placing it in opposition to penal substitution seems unnecessary. What is needed (and I guess I'm showing my own convictions here) is a deeper capacity to hold the one alongside the other, to appreciate and integrate historic emphases found in different parts of the Christian tradition without immediately opposing them.
So also with "spiritual formation" and the church. I actually doubt Comer devalues in practice the role of the local church in quite the way his book might imply; he is a former pastor, after all. But I couldn't help but contemplate the potential helpfulness of Comer's gifts in teaching/explaining spiritual disciplines when married to a robust and unapologetic ecclesiology, to an endorsement of Word and Sacrament as the beginnings and ends of all spiritual disciplines, their inherently communal font and telos this side of Jordan. Perhaps this would be a starting point for taking seriously Comer’s many beneficial contributions while keeping in mind that those contributions are not in themselves comprehensive for Christian flourishing.
June 25, 2024
Huge caveat with this review. If you have never been discipled or been in a church that strongly encourages you to “be with Jesus”, “become like him”, and “do as he did” then this book is a 5/5! However, in my journey with Christ much of the book was not extremely profound (still great though!), and in much of it I was wanting John Mark to talk more in depth about the specific topic that he was on.
If you feel similar to me then you’re actually in luck! John Mark’s “Practicing the Way” podcast is sooooooo good!! For example, instead of one page on prayer there is 4 hours of sermons! All together the podcast is the book and so much more!
Even though I didn’t give the book the highest score in the world, this idea of “Practicing the Way” is transforming the American church into the beautiful bride of Christ that doesn’t just proclaim Christ but lives Christ out in every aspect of their life. I deeply appreciate John Mark for pursuing and communicating the higher calling that Jesus calls us to! 🤟🏼
If you feel similar to me then you’re actually in luck! John Mark’s “Practicing the Way” podcast is sooooooo good!! For example, instead of one page on prayer there is 4 hours of sermons! All together the podcast is the book and so much more!
Even though I didn’t give the book the highest score in the world, this idea of “Practicing the Way” is transforming the American church into the beautiful bride of Christ that doesn’t just proclaim Christ but lives Christ out in every aspect of their life. I deeply appreciate John Mark for pursuing and communicating the higher calling that Jesus calls us to! 🤟🏼
February 25, 2024
I’m pretty sure I’ve read all of this author’s books at this point, and his commitment to following Christ above worldly ideals continues to impress me. John Mark Comer stays above the culture wars, citing teachings by everyone from the extremely progressive Rob Bell to the extremely conservative Rosaria Butterfield. The common denominator is that all the spiritual teachers he quotes are devoted to Jesus.
In this book, the author challenges Christians to go beyond believing in Christ to truly following him. It’s a book that encourages and convicts its readers in equal measure. It’s an invitation to give all you already have in return for something even better.
My favourite parts were the guidelines for creating a “rule of life” and the call to community. I absolutely loved the whole book and would recommend it to any Christian looking to deepen their faith.
In this book, the author challenges Christians to go beyond believing in Christ to truly following him. It’s a book that encourages and convicts its readers in equal measure. It’s an invitation to give all you already have in return for something even better.
My favourite parts were the guidelines for creating a “rule of life” and the call to community. I absolutely loved the whole book and would recommend it to any Christian looking to deepen their faith.
November 4, 2024
Practicing the Way is a very accessible entry to spiritual disciplines. It’s basically Dallas Willard's spiritual formation for a young, modern audience.
"A discipline is any activity I can do by direct effort that will eventually enable me to do what I currently cannot do by direct effort."
I've heard it said that if GenZ ever reads a book, it will for sure be a Comer book.
Ian Harber writes that Comer's "books and sermons are gaining Lewis or Keller-like popularity among Millennial and Gen Z Christians."
Practicing summed up much of what I’ve been learning this year in reading Willard, as well as brain-science focused on re-prioritizing the right hemisphere (Iain McGilchrist).
I liked it so much I’m having all my college ministry staff and student leaders read it.
I really like Practicing's 3-fold approach:
Be with Jesus.
Become like him.
Do as he did.
That sums up how you grow as a Christian. It's relational and acted ("those who hear my words and put them into practice…").
Habits books have been tremendously helpful for me as a follower of God: “turning desired behavior into default behavior” (Shane Parrish).
Practicing the Way is full of practical steps toward slowly becoming the kind of person "who spontaneously exhibit the character of Jesus" (as Willard says).
It's helpful to know the broader context that Comer fits in. Trevin Wax gives a helpful framework for understanding this new interest in spiritual formation with his article 3 Waves That Have Shaped Evangelical Churches (and a 4th on the Way)
The three waves over the last 50 years have been:
-Spirit-filled Worship
-Seeker-Sensitive Church Growth
-and Gospel Centrality
The rising fourth wave is the Comer-led spiritual formation movement.
I find the third and fourth wave to be incredibly compatible and actually much stronger together. The Keller-led Gospel Centered movement deeply shaped me and Tim Keller remains my favorite pastor and author. But the Spiritual Formation brings a helpful corrective of obedience and striving. Without the Gospel Centered foundation, Spiritual Formation can quickly devolve into bootstrapped human effort.
John Piper, in a 2019 sermon brings the two movements together - critiquing gospel-centered sermons that merely rehearse the gospel (with gratitude that Christ gave you righteousness), calling them "a half-gospel." Piper calls for obedience; for striving flowing from grace.
May Spiritual Formation AND Gospel Centered content increase!
"A discipline is any activity I can do by direct effort that will eventually enable me to do what I currently cannot do by direct effort."
I've heard it said that if GenZ ever reads a book, it will for sure be a Comer book.
Ian Harber writes that Comer's "books and sermons are gaining Lewis or Keller-like popularity among Millennial and Gen Z Christians."
Practicing summed up much of what I’ve been learning this year in reading Willard, as well as brain-science focused on re-prioritizing the right hemisphere (Iain McGilchrist).
I liked it so much I’m having all my college ministry staff and student leaders read it.
I really like Practicing's 3-fold approach:
Be with Jesus.
Become like him.
Do as he did.
That sums up how you grow as a Christian. It's relational and acted ("those who hear my words and put them into practice…").
Habits books have been tremendously helpful for me as a follower of God: “turning desired behavior into default behavior” (Shane Parrish).
Practicing the Way is full of practical steps toward slowly becoming the kind of person "who spontaneously exhibit the character of Jesus" (as Willard says).
It's helpful to know the broader context that Comer fits in. Trevin Wax gives a helpful framework for understanding this new interest in spiritual formation with his article 3 Waves That Have Shaped Evangelical Churches (and a 4th on the Way)
The three waves over the last 50 years have been:
-Spirit-filled Worship
-Seeker-Sensitive Church Growth
-and Gospel Centrality
The rising fourth wave is the Comer-led spiritual formation movement.
I find the third and fourth wave to be incredibly compatible and actually much stronger together. The Keller-led Gospel Centered movement deeply shaped me and Tim Keller remains my favorite pastor and author. But the Spiritual Formation brings a helpful corrective of obedience and striving. Without the Gospel Centered foundation, Spiritual Formation can quickly devolve into bootstrapped human effort.
John Piper, in a 2019 sermon brings the two movements together - critiquing gospel-centered sermons that merely rehearse the gospel (with gratitude that Christ gave you righteousness), calling them "a half-gospel." Piper calls for obedience; for striving flowing from grace.
May Spiritual Formation AND Gospel Centered content increase!
June 12, 2024
2,5
Irgendwie hat das Buch nicht so viel zu bieten. Ja, seine Kategorien sind gut, aber er füllt sie nicht aus. Ja, sein Anliegen ist super, Brücken zu schlagen zwischen der Kultur, in der er lebt, und den geistlichen Gewohnheiten oder der klösterlichen Tradition, aber es bleibt doch einseitig. Mit seinem Schreibstil versucht er zugänglich zu sein, aber auf mich wirkt es eher oberflächlich. Er schreibt über Gewohnheiten wie ein Lebensberater, aber er erklärt nicht wirklich, was er damit meint oder wie die Praxis aussehen soll.
Ja, das Buch ist ganz nett und ich teile sein Anliegen der Nachfolge. Aber ich glaube nicht, dass ich das Buch ein zweites Mal in die Hand nehmen werde. Nur seine vereinfachenden Kategorien finde ich nach wie vor sehr hilfreich, aber die tauchen bei ihm auch schon an anderer Stelle auf.
Irgendwie hat das Buch nicht so viel zu bieten. Ja, seine Kategorien sind gut, aber er füllt sie nicht aus. Ja, sein Anliegen ist super, Brücken zu schlagen zwischen der Kultur, in der er lebt, und den geistlichen Gewohnheiten oder der klösterlichen Tradition, aber es bleibt doch einseitig. Mit seinem Schreibstil versucht er zugänglich zu sein, aber auf mich wirkt es eher oberflächlich. Er schreibt über Gewohnheiten wie ein Lebensberater, aber er erklärt nicht wirklich, was er damit meint oder wie die Praxis aussehen soll.
Ja, das Buch ist ganz nett und ich teile sein Anliegen der Nachfolge. Aber ich glaube nicht, dass ich das Buch ein zweites Mal in die Hand nehmen werde. Nur seine vereinfachenden Kategorien finde ich nach wie vor sehr hilfreich, aber die tauchen bei ihm auch schon an anderer Stelle auf.
January 31, 2024
Potentially his best book yet… which, coming from me, is saying a lot. 💯
July 16, 2025
2,5?
Also Jungs, ich weiß ja nicht. So viele wirklich sehr gute Gedanken in diesem Buch. Die ganzen James k.a. Smith Sachen sind immer spannend. Comer erkennt denke ich viele Probleme gut. Ich finde das Prinzip einer Lebensregel wirklich attraktiv.
Aber Jungs der Mann hat theologische Probleme. Ich find's problematisch dass er "being with Jesus" eigentlich nur in mystischen Kategorien begreift und da einfach fast nicht auf die Gemeinde und Sakramente eingeht. Und er schmeißt einfach die mystische und kontemplative Tradition zusammen dass eine ist aber nicht zwangsweise das andere.
Apprenticeship to Jesus als Heilsweg?! "I am saved, I am being saved and I will be saved" ist ein östlich orthodoxes Heilskonzept und aus ner reformatorischen Sicht problematisch.
Ich bin glaube ich zu sehr augustinisch unterwegs um seine Idee der Heiligung durch Gewohnheiten als Jesus-Azubi einfach zu feiern auch wenn ich einige seiner Punkte hilfreich finde.
Bei "do as he did" wirds komisch. Finde seine Christologie dort wirklich wild und gar nicht so nahe an dem Vätern wie er zu sein meint. Habe auch eig immer wenn er von der Trinität spricht die Eebie-Jeebies bekommen. Roch mir bisschen stark nach social-trinity-Zeugs.
Habe ein sehr seltsames Verhältnis zu dem Buch. finde einiges sehr gut. Habe Probleme mit seiner Theologie und damit dann auch Implikationen für faith formation.
Also Jungs, ich weiß ja nicht. So viele wirklich sehr gute Gedanken in diesem Buch. Die ganzen James k.a. Smith Sachen sind immer spannend. Comer erkennt denke ich viele Probleme gut. Ich finde das Prinzip einer Lebensregel wirklich attraktiv.
Aber Jungs der Mann hat theologische Probleme. Ich find's problematisch dass er "being with Jesus" eigentlich nur in mystischen Kategorien begreift und da einfach fast nicht auf die Gemeinde und Sakramente eingeht. Und er schmeißt einfach die mystische und kontemplative Tradition zusammen dass eine ist aber nicht zwangsweise das andere.
Apprenticeship to Jesus als Heilsweg?! "I am saved, I am being saved and I will be saved" ist ein östlich orthodoxes Heilskonzept und aus ner reformatorischen Sicht problematisch.
Ich bin glaube ich zu sehr augustinisch unterwegs um seine Idee der Heiligung durch Gewohnheiten als Jesus-Azubi einfach zu feiern auch wenn ich einige seiner Punkte hilfreich finde.
Bei "do as he did" wirds komisch. Finde seine Christologie dort wirklich wild und gar nicht so nahe an dem Vätern wie er zu sein meint. Habe auch eig immer wenn er von der Trinität spricht die Eebie-Jeebies bekommen. Roch mir bisschen stark nach social-trinity-Zeugs.
Habe ein sehr seltsames Verhältnis zu dem Buch. finde einiges sehr gut. Habe Probleme mit seiner Theologie und damit dann auch Implikationen für faith formation.
June 10, 2025
yet another five star JMC book
favorite quotes from the book:
-be covered in the dust of your rabbi
-"We are being either transformed into the love and beauty of Jesus or malformed by the entropy of sin and death...To believe otherwise is an illusion; and to give no thought to this is to come dangerously close to wasting your life."
-"To make progress in our formation, we must face our sin."
-"To bear witness in our day often means we choose shame. But this is a small price to pay compared to 'knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
-"Frank Laubach said it, 'I must talk about God, or I cannot keep Him in my mind. I must give Him away in order to have Him.'...If you want more of God, give him away."
-'Christ has no body on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassionately on this world. Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours!' - Saint Teresa
-"discipleship - a disciplined effort to slow down and make space for God to transform you"
-the picture of the trellis
-"David Brooks once defined commitment as 'falling in love with something [or someone] and then building a structure of behavior around it for those moments when love falters."
-"it's the constraint of commitment that will create space for love to mature and real transformation to occur."
-'We achieve inner peace when our schedule aligns with our values.' (Stephen Covey)
-"rest is essential to apprenticeship under Jesus."
-"delight in and worship the God who made you to be with himself."
-"There's great joy to be found in repetition, if we can learn to be patient and full of delight in the present moment."
-G. K. Chesteron - "for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."
-"And yet: Can you imagine who we could become if we really gave our whole lives over to following Jesus? The kind of life we could enjoy? The kind of community we could become together?"
favorite quotes from the book:
-be covered in the dust of your rabbi
-"We are being either transformed into the love and beauty of Jesus or malformed by the entropy of sin and death...To believe otherwise is an illusion; and to give no thought to this is to come dangerously close to wasting your life."
-"To make progress in our formation, we must face our sin."
-"To bear witness in our day often means we choose shame. But this is a small price to pay compared to 'knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
-"Frank Laubach said it, 'I must talk about God, or I cannot keep Him in my mind. I must give Him away in order to have Him.'...If you want more of God, give him away."
-'Christ has no body on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassionately on this world. Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours!' - Saint Teresa
-"discipleship - a disciplined effort to slow down and make space for God to transform you"
-the picture of the trellis
-"David Brooks once defined commitment as 'falling in love with something [or someone] and then building a structure of behavior around it for those moments when love falters."
-"it's the constraint of commitment that will create space for love to mature and real transformation to occur."
-'We achieve inner peace when our schedule aligns with our values.' (Stephen Covey)
-"rest is essential to apprenticeship under Jesus."
-"delight in and worship the God who made you to be with himself."
-"There's great joy to be found in repetition, if we can learn to be patient and full of delight in the present moment."
-G. K. Chesteron - "for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."
-"And yet: Can you imagine who we could become if we really gave our whole lives over to following Jesus? The kind of life we could enjoy? The kind of community we could become together?"
June 27, 2025
Hey, this book is pretty good! The style will probably make it outdated in a decade or so, but the content is super solid. If his writing serves as a gateway drug to Lewis, Chesterton, the mystics, and the early church fathers, I don't think we should complain too much.
November 26, 2023
In comparison to other John Mark Comer books, this one took me the longest to read and I think that’s because I felt like I had a lot to sit with and reflect on. Comer’s practicality, synthesis of thoughts from theologians throughout the centuries, and use of the scriptures to talk about the Way may sound intimidating, but it all felt very straight-forward. His chapters on surrender and sacrifice particularly gave me a lot to sit with and then take to the Lord. I’d highly recommend this book for anyone who feels like they are stuck in their faith; Comer beautifully discusses that there is so much more to life with Jesus than we tend to believe in our mundane, busy lives. A quote I sat with for a while:
“Apprenticeship to Jesus is about turning your body into a temple, a place of overlap between heaven and earth - an advance sign of what one day Jesus will do for the entire cosmos, when heaven and earth are at long last reunited as one.”
Thank you to Waterbrook/Multnomah and NetGalley for this advanced copy!
“Apprenticeship to Jesus is about turning your body into a temple, a place of overlap between heaven and earth - an advance sign of what one day Jesus will do for the entire cosmos, when heaven and earth are at long last reunited as one.”
Thank you to Waterbrook/Multnomah and NetGalley for this advanced copy!
March 14, 2024
Straightforward yet convicting and moving read. I think this quote summarizes it for me: “Christlikeness in our inner being is not the result of the right application of spiritual disciplines, finding a “good church,” or mastering the right technique of living—it is always a gift of sheer grace. You will never work harder for anything in your life than Christlike character, and nothing else will ever feel like such an unearned gift.”
July 10, 2025
I read this book because of how many others have read it, and because many have been helped by it. I agree there is a lot of help here. I think Comer puts his finger on a real problem and offers a right solution. There really is a lack of understanding regarding the Gospel in the West. A firm “yes” to the question “are you a Christian?” is not enough, and we really do need to revive a sense of what it really means to be saved in both belief and practice. A Christ-follower who reads this book and walks away with a greater commitment to follow Christ in all things and with a clear plan to commit more time to knowing Him (a “Rule of Life”) will be blessed by it. I was. It was an extremely helpful reminder that our life rhythms are shaping us whether we know it or not, and one of the best ways to be formed into Christ is to take ownership of those rhythms by implementing practices (disciplines) that, in many ways, mimic the life of our Lord. I was grateful for that help.
On the other hand, the help, though well-intended, is offered (explicitly) in the form of a cloud of mysticism that at best blurs the clarity of the Gospel and, at worst, hides it entirely. Two dangers stand out to me as the most prominent:
1. The Gospel is a finished work that transforms hardened sinners into righteous saints. Period. All people, by faith in Christ, receive the free gift of sainthood (i.e., they are "sanctified", or "made holy"). Even the Christians at Corinth, with all their many horrendous sins, were addressed by Paul as "saints" - and I don't think he was being sarcastic. Their problem, and ours, was not that they needed to become holy, but that they needed to be reminded that they were already sanctified and then be exhorted to live lives in alignment with that undeserved gift. In the upside-down Kingdom it is not godliness that produces saints, but saints that produce godliness. Comer seems to communicate the reverse. He begins and ends with explicit calls for Christians to "become saints", but the call is implicit everywhere. This is where the Gospel gets blurry. The emphasis on certain practices that enable a person to get more "heaven into you" and be truly transformed make it unclear whether simple faith really is enough to receive the merits of Christ's work. Of course, true faith does necessarily entail a transformation of character and behavior. Yet where Comer would say the Gospel is "less about a transaction and more about transformation", the Biblical model appears to be that the Gospel is all about a transaction that produces a transformation. The Gospel, though not dependent on our personal godliness, always creates it. To be fair, what he means by saint is not necessarily clear. What is clear is that it has a lot to do with a deeper experience of the second danger.
2. To be a mystic is to stress the importance of subjective experience as a means (normally, THE means) of communing with God. For Comer, these subjective experiences include things like feeling God's presence in prayer, following the inner "promptings" of the Spirit, and practicing the gift of prophecy. These things are central to "the Way". There's nothing wrong with subjective experience, and it is a great gift from God that we each have moments of fresh delight in the Lord and/or supernatural empowerment. But making experience a chief pursuit is problematic for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that we come to rely so heavily on "feelings" that we begin to be led by them and, when we lose them, to believe we aren’t being led at all. That's a dangerous game, and one that so easily leads to a slew of strange beliefs and practices to the neglect (often) of the objective, unchanging, immovable revelation of God through His Word. It is the Word that has always been the surest and best means of communion with a God who has definitively made himself known. The “Way” doesn’t neglect the Word, but it is #5 on the list for a reason.
These two undercurrents throughout the book have a subtle but strong pull away from what I think is the pure Gospel (faith alone) and the sure way (Scripture alone, though not without other means) to know God and grow more like Christ. Resisting these currents will be a real challenge for any reader looking for help to make it further upstream in the fight for greater Gospel-induced Christ-likeness.
On the other hand, the help, though well-intended, is offered (explicitly) in the form of a cloud of mysticism that at best blurs the clarity of the Gospel and, at worst, hides it entirely. Two dangers stand out to me as the most prominent:
1. The Gospel is a finished work that transforms hardened sinners into righteous saints. Period. All people, by faith in Christ, receive the free gift of sainthood (i.e., they are "sanctified", or "made holy"). Even the Christians at Corinth, with all their many horrendous sins, were addressed by Paul as "saints" - and I don't think he was being sarcastic. Their problem, and ours, was not that they needed to become holy, but that they needed to be reminded that they were already sanctified and then be exhorted to live lives in alignment with that undeserved gift. In the upside-down Kingdom it is not godliness that produces saints, but saints that produce godliness. Comer seems to communicate the reverse. He begins and ends with explicit calls for Christians to "become saints", but the call is implicit everywhere. This is where the Gospel gets blurry. The emphasis on certain practices that enable a person to get more "heaven into you" and be truly transformed make it unclear whether simple faith really is enough to receive the merits of Christ's work. Of course, true faith does necessarily entail a transformation of character and behavior. Yet where Comer would say the Gospel is "less about a transaction and more about transformation", the Biblical model appears to be that the Gospel is all about a transaction that produces a transformation. The Gospel, though not dependent on our personal godliness, always creates it. To be fair, what he means by saint is not necessarily clear. What is clear is that it has a lot to do with a deeper experience of the second danger.
2. To be a mystic is to stress the importance of subjective experience as a means (normally, THE means) of communing with God. For Comer, these subjective experiences include things like feeling God's presence in prayer, following the inner "promptings" of the Spirit, and practicing the gift of prophecy. These things are central to "the Way". There's nothing wrong with subjective experience, and it is a great gift from God that we each have moments of fresh delight in the Lord and/or supernatural empowerment. But making experience a chief pursuit is problematic for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that we come to rely so heavily on "feelings" that we begin to be led by them and, when we lose them, to believe we aren’t being led at all. That's a dangerous game, and one that so easily leads to a slew of strange beliefs and practices to the neglect (often) of the objective, unchanging, immovable revelation of God through His Word. It is the Word that has always been the surest and best means of communion with a God who has definitively made himself known. The “Way” doesn’t neglect the Word, but it is #5 on the list for a reason.
These two undercurrents throughout the book have a subtle but strong pull away from what I think is the pure Gospel (faith alone) and the sure way (Scripture alone, though not without other means) to know God and grow more like Christ. Resisting these currents will be a real challenge for any reader looking for help to make it further upstream in the fight for greater Gospel-induced Christ-likeness.
June 14, 2024
Ich schätze Comer für seine theologische Ausgewogenheit zwischen Zuspruch und Anspruch des Evangeliums und sein kritisch-wertschätzenden Umgang mit unserer Kultur. Für meine Spiritualität war es erfrischend zu lesen und ich werde es in der deutschen Version Leben vom Meister lernen: Practicing the Way über den Sommer mit den Gen-Z Jugendlichen aus meiner Gemeinde lesen.
January 28, 2024
I could hardly put this book down. Comer presents such a compelling and inspiring vision of apprenticeship to Jesus. There is a lot of spiritual and practical wisdom packed throughout its pages, and I will frequently return to it as I craft my own Rule of Life. Highly recommended!
February 3, 2025
When I was in undergrad, evangelicalism featured many high-profile pastors - Timothy Keller, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Francis Chan, Rob Bell. The landscape has changed since then - Keller passed away in 2023, Piper retired in 2013, Driscoll stepped down from his Seattle megachurch in disgrace and scandal in 2014 (only to plant a new church in Arizona in 2016), Chan stepped down from the California church he founded, and Bell resigned from Mars Hill Bible Church and has distanced himself from evangelicalism entirely. The Gospel Coalition, the engine that drove much of the early 21st century's New Calvinist resurgence in the West, also ceased holding some of its regular, large-scale events. This has left a void in evangelical culture, though perhaps this is a good thing as all too often, evangelicals can fall into celebrity idolatry.
Into this vacuum has stepped John Mark Comer. Writing in a style reminiscent of
Rob
Bell,
Comer has effectively cornered the evangelical market on spiritual formation. He draws heavily from Dallas Willard and the wider Christian tradition, including church fathers, medieval mystics, and more modern writers like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ronald Rolheiser, and Tish Harrison Warren. This eclectic catholicity has also led some Calvinists to critique Comer, but these critiques reveal a narrow sectarianism on their part rather than landing as decisive blows to Comer's vision for discipleship.
This is a very accessible book that both introduces readers to Jesus and takes them further into the craft of developing a Rule of Life. In this, it isn't really breaking any new ground - there are lots of books that already detail how to create a rule of life (Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way, God in My Everything: How an Ancient Rhythm Helps Busy People Enjoy God, etc...).
At times, I did wonder how attainable Comer's vision concretely is. Granted, Comer's vocation is that of a pastor and spiritual mentor, but when he says he spends one day a month in solitude I wonder how realistic that actually is for a Latina mother attending a suburban megachurch who works at Fred Meyer and has four kids under the age of twelve. Still, lots of good practical tips and insights in this book.
I did what I never do and listened to this on audiobook.
Into this vacuum has stepped John Mark Comer. Writing in a style reminiscent of
Rob
Bell,
Comer has effectively cornered the evangelical market on spiritual formation. He draws heavily from Dallas Willard and the wider Christian tradition, including church fathers, medieval mystics, and more modern writers like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ronald Rolheiser, and Tish Harrison Warren. This eclectic catholicity has also led some Calvinists to critique Comer, but these critiques reveal a narrow sectarianism on their part rather than landing as decisive blows to Comer's vision for discipleship.
This is a very accessible book that both introduces readers to Jesus and takes them further into the craft of developing a Rule of Life. In this, it isn't really breaking any new ground - there are lots of books that already detail how to create a rule of life (Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way, God in My Everything: How an Ancient Rhythm Helps Busy People Enjoy God, etc...).
At times, I did wonder how attainable Comer's vision concretely is. Granted, Comer's vocation is that of a pastor and spiritual mentor, but when he says he spends one day a month in solitude I wonder how realistic that actually is for a Latina mother attending a suburban megachurch who works at Fred Meyer and has four kids under the age of twelve. Still, lots of good practical tips and insights in this book.
I did what I never do and listened to this on audiobook.
October 12, 2023
"Apprenticeship to Jesus—that is, following Jesus—is a whole-life process of being with Jesus for the purpose of becoming like him and carrying on his work in the world. It’s a lifelong journey in which we gradually learn to say and do the kinds of things Jesus said and did as we apprentice under him in every facet of our lives."
Comer has made the process of being made an apprentice of Jesus not only sound desirable, he has simplified it through "Practicing the Way". The language used to describe our abiding with Jesus stirred up in me a deep passion for Jesus's presence. And, it is through our abundant time spent with Jesus that we are transformed to be like him and do as he did, as Comer reminds his readers throughout the whole book. Comer has great wisdom in implementing practical steps to seek transformation as well, giving readers a wide variety of ways to seek transformation. But what Comer does best in this book is that he very smoothly synthesizes thoughts and excerpts from many Christian sages. "Practicing the Way" gives vision and inspiration to living as an apprentice of Jesus, and it acts as a springboard into a life of continued learning. I'll be highly recommending this book to all the young men I disciple, and I am eager for how the knowledge found here can be used to transform the church.
Thank you to Waterbrook/Multnomah and NetGalley for this advanced copy. All opinions are my own.
Comer has made the process of being made an apprentice of Jesus not only sound desirable, he has simplified it through "Practicing the Way". The language used to describe our abiding with Jesus stirred up in me a deep passion for Jesus's presence. And, it is through our abundant time spent with Jesus that we are transformed to be like him and do as he did, as Comer reminds his readers throughout the whole book. Comer has great wisdom in implementing practical steps to seek transformation as well, giving readers a wide variety of ways to seek transformation. But what Comer does best in this book is that he very smoothly synthesizes thoughts and excerpts from many Christian sages. "Practicing the Way" gives vision and inspiration to living as an apprentice of Jesus, and it acts as a springboard into a life of continued learning. I'll be highly recommending this book to all the young men I disciple, and I am eager for how the knowledge found here can be used to transform the church.
Thank you to Waterbrook/Multnomah and NetGalley for this advanced copy. All opinions are my own.
December 5, 2024
I’m a fan of anything Comer writes, but this one was special. so practical in today’s day and age of so many young people desiring depth in their Spiritual walk but not sure how to get there. definitely put it on your to read list!!!!
Ok just finished for the second time through (12/5/24) & it’s the best book to read within a discipleship relationship! so rich.
Ok just finished for the second time through (12/5/24) & it’s the best book to read within a discipleship relationship! so rich.
June 26, 2024
Simply put, I don't like his style. The lack of traditional paragraphs and constant barrage of somewhat relevant quotes really doesn't help eliminate hurry, nor does it contribute positively to the building of attention. The second half of the book contained some good points, but overall I found the book to be a shallow exploration of ideas I've heard before.
June 27, 2024
John Mark Comer, are you a Wesleyan? If you are, don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody. But are you a Wesleyan?
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