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.
The Companion Guide

Week One: Following Jesus

Following Jesus is more than going to church or believing the right things; it is practicing a way of life. The meaning of “follow Jesus” is rooted in 1st-century practices of rabbis and apprentices, practices that inform our understanding of how to follow Jesus today.

Session Summary

  • Following Jesus is based on the first-century practice of rabbis and apprentices.
  • Today, to follow Jesus means to apprentice under him.
  • To apprentice under Jesus is to organize your life around three driving goals:
    • Be with Jesus
    • Become like Jesus
    • Do as he did
  • Apprenticing under Jesus means practicing a way of life.
  • One of the best ways to begin is through a daily prayer rhythm, where you create a time and place for solitude, silence, and prayer.

Practice for the Week

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

Week Two: Formation Part 01

Whether we realize it or not, all of us are being formed — by our habits, relationships, the stories we believe, and our environment. This session explores the six primary forces shaping individuals: habits, relationships, stories, environment, time, and experience.

Session Summary

  • Spiritual formation isn’t a Christian thing; it’s a human thing.
  • We are formed by a complex web of forces, but especially by:
    • Habits
    • Relationships
    • The stories we believe
    • Environment
    • Time
    • Experience
  • Most of our formation is unintentional.
  • Some of the most important questions to reflect on are:
    • Who am I becoming?
    • Am I being intentional about who I am becoming?
  • One of the best ways to do this is through a Formation Audit (see below).

Practice for the Week

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

Book

If you're reading the Practicing the Way book, for this session, we're reading “Goal #1: Be with Jesus,” pp. 32-63.
Purchase the book here

Week Three: Formation Part 02

Many of us desire to become more like Jesus, but we feel stuck. We need a training program, a reliable pathway to transformation. We find this in the Way of Jesus, which shows us how to intentionally engage formation.

Session Summary

  • We may desire to become more like Jesus, but feel stuck.
  • The problem is that we don’t know how to become like Jesus.
  • We need a training program — a reliable pathway to transformation.
  • We find this in the Way of Jesus, where we are formed by:
    • The Practices
    • Community
    • Teaching
    • The Holy Spirit
  • Formation happens over time and through suffering.
  • And one of the best ways to begin to change is to replace an unhealthy habit with the
    practice of reading Scripture daily.

Practice for the Week

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

Book

If you're reading the Practicing the Way book, for this session, we're reading “Goal #2: Become
like him,” pp. 64-117.
Purchase the book here

Week Four: The Practices

In session 4 we explored the Practices of Jesus. The Practices are disciplines that create space for the Spirit to transform us from the inside out. Learn about practicing ancient disciplines that open us up to God to change us at the deepest level. 

Session Summary

  • 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

Practice for the Week

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.

Book

If you're reading the Practicing the Way book, for this session, we're reading “Goal #3: Do as He did." pp. 64-117.
Purchase the book here

Week Five: Meeting God in Pain and Suffering

The Practices can expose pain as our soul begins to process and discharge suffering. This session explores the three primary ways people deal with pain (deny, detach, or drug), how unhealed pain sabotages transformation, and how God can meet us in pain to bring lasting change. 

Session Summary

  • 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.

Practice for the Week

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

Book

If you're reading the Practicing the Way book, for this session, we're reading “How? A Rule of Life." pp. 156-205.
Purchase the book here

Week Six: Healing From Sin

This session covers three dimensions of sin — sin done by us, sin done to us, and sin done around us — and explores four layers of sin we move through in our healing: gross sins, conscious sins, unconscious sins, and attachments. Finally, the session covers our part in healing, the practice of confession.

Session Summary

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.

Practice for the Week

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

Book

If you're reading the Practicing the Way book, for this session, we're reading “Take Up Your Cross." pp. 206 -221.
Purchase the book here

Leaders

Joel Bidderman | Saturday Mornings

Email

John Hervey | Monday Evenings

Email

See you next week!