Press Release
New York Times Bestselling Author and Respected Pastor John Mark Comer Offers the Essential, Countercultural Spiritual Formation Guide, Helping Readers Become Apprentices of Jesus
Practicing the Way is an Instant New York Times & USA Today Bestseller!
After two decades of working out discipleship to Jesus in the post-Christian West as founding pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland,
New York Times bestselling author John Mark Comer (
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry) has come to believe that transformation is possible. But it’s not inevitable.” Yet “there is a Way of life laid down by Jesus himself and that if we give ourselves to it—and ultimately to
him—it will lead to the life we all most truly crave.”
The result of this decades-long journey is Comer’s highly anticipated spiritual formation manifesto:
Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did. (WaterBrook; on sale 1/16/24), written in his trademark mix of cultural insight, deep biblical teaching, and an honest and hopeful view of the potential of each human soul.
With his conversational and down-to-earth style, he explores how Jesus’ form of apprenticeship is drastically different from our Western church model of discipleship and he adeptly debunks several common myths of discipleship.
“For those of us who desire to follow Jesus, the reality we must grapple with is: if we’re not being intentionally formed by Jesus himself, then we are being unintentionally formed by someone or something else,” Comer writes.
Throughout the book, he helps readers understand:
-what it means to be an “apprentice” of Jesus
-that spiritual formation isn’t a Christian thing, it’s a human thing. We’re all being spiritually formed by someone or something
-the importance of embracing countercultural practices such as Sabbath, silence and community
-the importance of crafting a “Rule of Life” to turn the vision of transformation into a reality.
“A Rule of Life is an invitation to a very different definition of freedom than that of the modern world—an invitation to embrace the constraints that, if you give yourself to them, will eventually set you free,” he says.
An avid reader, Comer includes wisdom from a wide variety of respected voices of spiritual formation whose teachings have greatly influenced him, including Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, and Henri Nouwen.
Whether the reader is a spiritual seeker, new to the faith or a longtime Christ-follower who feels like they have hit a plateau and longs to be anchored in healthy spiritual rhythms
, Practicing the Way is an essential and helpful guide.
About the Author: John Mark Comer is the
New York Times bestselling author of multiple books including
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (more than half a million sold)
and
Live No Lies. His new book is
Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did. (a WaterBrook hardcover; on sale 1/16/24). He’s a founding pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, and a teacher and writer with Practicing the Way. After serving as the lead pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, for nearly two decades, John Mark and his family now reside in Los Angeles, where he serves as a teacher in residence on discipleship and spiritual formation at Vintage Church LA. His podcasts,
John Mark Comer Teachings and
Rule of Life, have been ranked on top religion and spirituality podcast charts in the US and UK. He and his wife, Tammy, have three children. For more information, visit johnmarkcomer.com, and https://www.instagram.com/johnmarkcomer/
Notable Quotes from John Mark Comer in Practicing the Way:The greatest issue facing the world today is not climate change, the specter of nuclear war, surveillance capitalism, or human rights, as utterly crucial as all these are. But can you imagine how many of them would effectively be solved overnight if the billions of living humans who identify as Christians all became apprentices of Jesus? If they made it their driving aim to approach every challenge as Jesus would if he were in their shoes? You see: Jesus is not looking for converts to Christianity, he’s looking for apprentices in the kingdom of God.
But for Jesus, salvation is less about getting you into heaven, and more about getting heaven into you. It’s not just about him becoming like us, but us becoming like him. It’s less of a transaction, and more of a transformation. It’s not just about what He has done for us, but what He has done, is doing, and will do in us if we apprentice under him. Not just about being loved by God, but about becoming the kind of person who is pervaded by the love of God. Not just about accepting the merit of his death, but receiving the power of his resurrection.
The call to apprentice under Jesus is a call not to do
more but to do
less.
This is the great challenge of discipleship: to move from aspirational ideas to authentic transformation.
The question is
not, Are you preaching the gospel? It’s,
What gospel are you preaching?
Praise for Practicing the Way“In this spacious, eminently readable volume, John Mark Comer meditates on how Christian discipleship is, at its root, the radical task of becoming an apprentice of Jesus—to be with him, to become like him, and to do as he did. The deceptively simple call is to take Jesus at his word, to open ourselves fully to him, to organize our schedules, our routines, our study, our daily practices around him, and, by doing so, to become people who can do as he would in our day and our culture. Comer’s experiences as a pastor, teacher, thinker, and an apprentice himself are helpfully on display here. Sit with this book slowly and let it be your guide into a life of apprenticeship to Jesus.”
—Tish Harrison Warren, Anglican priest and author of Liturgy of the Ordinary and Prayer in the Night
“In
Practicing the Way, John Mark Comer brilliantly shows us what it means to follow Jesus, and here is the best part: As you read, you will want nothing more than to be on Jesus’ heels. We are a disciple-less generation, and yet, walking this closely with Jesus is our way back to the purpose of life. This is one of the most important books I have read in a decade, and if we would all follow in this way, our lives would change and the world would change.”
—Jennie Allen, New York Times bestselling author of Get Out of Your Head and Find Your People and founder and visionary of IF:Gathering
“In
Practicing the Way, John Mark Comer offers us a portrait of following Jesus that is as profound and compelling as it is simple. Be prepared to take an honest look at your own life habits and prayerfully ask,
What kind of person am I becoming and
Is it more like Jesus or less? Here you will find a beautiful picture of the kind of life Jesus envisioned for his followers and a practical pathway to experience it for yourself.”
—Tim Mackie, co-founder of BibleProject “I love John Mark Comer’s vision for life—to be with Jesus, become more like him, and aspire to do what Jesus would do. This book can help us all in our own walk with Jesus.”
—Nicky Gumbel, pioneer of Alpha“This is the book that I want everyone in my church to read. It is an invitation deeper for the lifelong follower of Jesus, and the perfect primer for the new believer. Somehow, in a way only John Mark can do, he has plunged the depths of the gospel invitation in a way that is relatable, accessible, and readable for the everyday seeker.”
—Tyler Staton, lead pastor of Bridgetown Church“Herein is a window to the meaning and significance of life that only Jesus affords. John Mark has given us the antidote to failed religion and generational hypocrisy. Read it slowly. Be changed deeply.”
—Rev. Dr. Charlie Dates, senior pastor of Salem Baptist Church of Chicago and Progressive Baptist Church, Chicago
Contact Publicist
Brett Benson
