Practicing the Way: A Christian Foundations Book for a New Generation

A Book I'd Recommend

If I knew someone was new to Christianity or curious about it, Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer might be the first book I recommend to them. If the person was specifically asking questions about reasons to believe in God or what the essential beliefs of Christianity are, I would point them elsewhere because this book isn't about that. But what this book does beautifully is highlight the centrality of discipleship to Jesus and describe what discipleship to Jesus looks like.

The Centrality of Discipleship

The ironic and somewhat awkward thing about being a Christian in this culture is that the above idea (that discipleship to Jesus is central to Christianity) is not well-known even among Christians. Although it has become more common over the past couple decades, there would still be vast numbers of Christians unfamiliar with the concept of discipleship—or, if they are familiar with it, it may not play a central role in their understanding of Christianity. Comer succeeds in correcting this lack and orients his whole book around the centrality of discipleship. It's for this reason that I would also recommend this book to any Christian wanting to go back to the basics of their faith, wanting to take their faith more seriously, or wanting to breathe some fresh life into their faith.

Outline of the Book

There are five main sections to the book:

The introductory section lays the foundation I've been discussing: what discipleship is and why it's central.
The next three sections outline the three goals of every disciple. Goal 1 (and my personal favourite section) is "Be with Jesus", and it has to do with prayer and the possibility of friendship with Jesus.
Goal 2 is "Become like Jesus" and covers "spiritual formation": how we change and what gets in the way. (He makes the powerful point that we're all being formed by something or someone whether we know it or not, so we might as well be intentional and choose the best person to be formed by.)
Goal 3 is "Do what Jesus did" and covers hospitality, sharing the good news of Jesus, and being channels for the power of God to move through.
The final substantial section of the book goes over what a rule of life is, and the necessity of incorporating spiritual disciplines into our lives. This was not a bad section, but personally I felt like it rehashed topics I'm already familiar with.

The Cost of Discipleship (and Non-Discipleship)

One of my favorite things about Comer generally and this book specifically is how he balances an emphasis on the "cost of discipleship" with the "cost of non-discipleship". The cost of discipleship refers to the difficult but necessary aspects of following Jesus (e.g. loving your enemies). This is a great reminder to anyone who thinks they can live however they want but call themself a Christian because they "sprinkle" a bit of Christianity into the edges of their life (like going to church every once in a while). Comer reminds us that following Jesus requires a total upheaval and rearranging of our lives.

On the other hand, Comer is one of the best authors out there when it comes to describing the "cost of non-discipleship," which is all the things that we miss out on when we don't follow Jesus. He paints a picture of the abundant life that Jesus offers us in a way that truly captures my heart and renews my motivation to follow Jesus.

Additional Resources

The additional resources are also worth mentioning! Check out the Practicing the Way website for small group study videos on the different spiritual disciplines as well as the podcasts that accompany the videos.