Practicing the Way Course Resources

This is where you can find resources from our Practicing the Way Course sessions!
If there's something that you're looking for that you can't find here, you can ask Joel or John.

Developing a daily prayer rhythm.
(Check out the companion guide for recommendations!)

Do a Formational Audit (Pages 30-36 in your Companion Guide)

Daily Reading of Scripture (Pages 48-49 in your Companion Guide)

• Session summary
• The Practices are disciplines based on the lifestyle of Jesus that create time and space for us to access the presence and power of the Spirit and, in doing so, be transformed from the inside out.
• Practices are a means to an end: to live and love like Jesus.
• We approach deeper changes in our life indirectly, not directly, by practicing ancient disciplines that open us up to God to change us at the deepest level.
• Practices are not the whole of the spiritual life, they are just one part of it.
• They are essential for those who desire to be transformed to become more like Jesus.
• One of the most important practices for our age of exhaustion is Sabbath — a full day set aside to stop, rest, delight, and worship.

The Practices
Sabbath
Prayer
Fasting
Solitude
Generosity
Scripture
Community
Service
Witness

Begin the Spiritual Discipline of Sabbath (Pages 60-61 in your Companion Guide)

If it is new to you, Sabbath can feel daunting! Where do you begin? Here are four things to keep in mind when it comes to Sabbath (found on page 60):

1.  Begin by connecting with God. The Hebrew people called this “sanctifying the day,” setting it aside from the other six days. You could light two candles, or pray a Psalm or share a meal or begin with Sunday worship at your church. But have a clear ritual or moment with God that begins and ends your Sabbath time.
2. If you can, spend part of the day with your family or friends who follow Jesus. You could throw a Sabbath meal or just spend unhurried time in conversation.
3. Do whatever makes you come alive in God. Nap, read poetry, play basketball with your kids. Pursue whatever activities make you feel joyful, rested, and alive to God; whatever it is you do that makes heart spontaneously burst into gratitude and worship.
4. Keep at it. Integrating Sabbath keeping into your life usually takes months or years, not weeks. Just smart small and aim at joy.

There is also a Rest and Sabbath Page on the VG Website with some practical ideas.

• The practices are not a religious formula to habit-stack our way into spiritual formation.
• When we slow down and come to quiet before God,
  often the first thing that comes up is emotional pain,
  as our soul begins to process and discharge all the
  pain and suffering of our life.
• There are three primary ways people deal with pain:
  • Deny
  • Detach
  • Drug
• The Jesus way is to meet God in our pain.
• Left unhealed, emotional pain can sabotage our
  transformation. But if we open it to God, it can
  become the secret to our transformation.

Spiritual bypassing
A tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks*.
Emotional maturity
You’re aware of your feelings, but you’re not run by your feelings.
Spiritual maturity
The ability and willingness to know and do the will of God.

Noticing and naming your emotions. (Pages 68-69 in your Companion Guide)

Scripture
It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call
the righteous, but sinners.
—Mark 2v17

• A key aspect of the spiritual journey is healing from sin.

• Three dimensions to sin:
o Sin done by us
o Sin done to us
o And sin done around us

• Four layers of sin we move through in our healing:*

o Gross sins
o Conscious sins
o Unconscious sins
o Attachments

• Our part in the healing of sin is the practice of confession.

Confess and name your sin to someone you trust. (Page 80 in your Companion Guide)

Scripture
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
—John 15v5-8

• Transformation is possible, but it’s not inevitable.
• We need an intentional plan for our spiritual formation — what the early Christians called a “Rule of Life.”
• A Rule of Life is a schedule and a set of practices and relational rhythms that create space for us to be with Jesus, become like him, and do as he did.
• When crafting a Rule for the first time, it’s important to start small, and begin with subtraction, not addition.
• This coming week, our exercise is to design a Rule of Life.

01 Start small
02 Think subtraction, not addition
03 Take a balanced approach
04 Take into account your personality and season of life
05 There is no formation without repetition
06 Do this in community

Crafting a Rule of Life. (Page 90 & 93 - 96 in your Companion Guide)

Scripture
A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” —Mark 3v32-35

• Jesus’ invitation was to come and do life together.
• Through Jesus, we have been adopted into the family of God.
• Jesus’ desire is not just to form you into a person of love, but to form a community of love.
• You can’t follow Jesus alone; spiritual formation is a relational process.
• Four layers of community*
  • Intimates: 1-5 people who deeply know and love us
  • Friends: 15 people with whom we do life
  • Village: 150 people, the maximum we can be in relationship with
  • Tribe: The larger group we identify with and belong to
• Spiritual friendships are marked by three core characteristics:
  • Depth
  •  Vulnerability
  • Commitment to transformation
• Our final practice is to cultivate a community of spiritual friendship and begin meeting regularly.

Do life in community. (Page 104 in your Companion Guide)