Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did.

by John Mark Comer

If we’re not being intentionally formed by Jesus himself, then it’s highly likely we are being unintentionally formed by someone or something else.[6]

Tozer famously said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us,”[51] because we become like our mental picture of God. For this reason, spiritual formation in the Way of Jesus begins with the healing of our false images of God.

Back to Richard Foster: After decades of teaching on spiritual formation all over North America, he concluded that most people think they will grow to be more like Jesus through trying hard rather than training hard, when the exact opposite is true.

We must embrace this church, this pastor, these people. We must forgive these shortcomings and celebrate these strengths. Community is always a nonabstract journey into facing reality.

Learning theorists frame apprenticeship as a four-stage training process: I do; you watch. I do; you help. You do; I help. You do; I watch.[5]

If you are an apprentice of Jesus, your end goal is to grow and mature into the kind of person who can say and do all the things Jesus said and did.