As a church, we are committed to helping people become disciples of Jesus. This is a lifelong journey we each undertake, and is a process of growth in our knowledge of Jesus, our experience of him, and the way our faith expresses itself in action. This is often called 'Spiritual Formation'.
Some great work has been done recently by John Mark Comer and the Practicing the Way ministry, in helping followers of Jesus "be with Jesus, become like him, and do as he did". This involves including 9 ancient practices into the regular rhythm of life.
These are all things Jesus himself practiced and/or taught which we believe there is a deep value in implementing ourselves.
During 2025, 2026 and 2027 as a church (all congregations), we will be exploring these 9 practices and inviting people to test out in their own lives. Each year we will include 3 practices into our calendar, spending 4 Sundays on each. Life Groups will also be invited to work through some of the helpful resources provided by Practicing the Way.
Here are some really important things we want you to know:
This is all about helping people make space for Jesus in their lives so they may enjoy a rich relationship with him and be better equipped to 'be with Jesus, to become like him and to do as he did'. In many cases its not about "addition" (adding things into a busy life) but about "subtraction" (looking at where things can be removed to help us orient our lives more effectively around Jesus).
This is invitational - you will never be pressured to implement the practices, or judged for not doing so. We'll simply present these practices which Jesus himself reflected in his life, and invite you to try them out in your own life - for your own benefit. It's completely up to you whether you accept.
The purpose of these practices is not to 'tick boxes' or create rules to follow, or to make ourselves appear 'spiritual'. These practices are simply tools to help us and others on our journey with Jesus. The goal is to become more like him, a person of love.
John Mark Comer writes, “Love is the acid test of spiritual formation. The single most important question is, Are we becoming more loving? Not, Are we becoming more biblically educated? Or practicing more spiritual disciplines? Or more involved in church? Those are all good things, but not the most important thing.” (Practicing the Way).
Start small. As we present the practices, every person will be invited to try them out for themselves in their own lives - but that will look different for everyone. Furthermore, in most cases it will be a long process of figuring out what works best for you in your own situation. It will look different for a shift worker than for a 9-5 worker. Different for someone working in an office full time than for a parent who is at home with young kids. So the encouragement is to just start small and go from there. We will talk about this more in each practice series.
You can check out the 9 practices below, and also explore some of the resources which you might like to utilise during our series in each of the practices.
You may also want to consider journeying through each practice with a 'Practice Group', which is essentially a short-term Life Group. See below for details.
We have created a guide with one reflection for each week of our Generosity series. This is simply a way to process and pray through some of the things we explore throughout the series and invite God to speak to you about them.
You can download the guide below or collect a hard copy from the Connect Desk.
During our 4 week series in each of the practices, Life Groups will be tracking along with the study material. If you're not in a Life Group, you might want to join a 'Practice Group' during the series. Working through the concepts in a group environment is so helpful - together we wrestle through questions we might have and share our journeys as we experiment with implementing practices in our own lives. To express interest in joining a Practice Group, click below.
Watch our sermons from each practice.
Learn about why we might follow Jesus in setting aside a day to rest and enjoy God and the life he's given us.
Hear about the practice of prayer and how it can be part of your daily life. Explore different types of prayer and draw closer to Jesus as you learn to talk with him.
In this series of messages we learn about the value of incorporating the reading of the Bible into our daily life. We explore how we can do that and overcome some of the challenges associated with it.
As we journey through the nine practices, you may like to explore some great resources available from Practising the Way and others.
Here are some of the things you might find helpful:
Practicing the Way provides their study material for free, and you can access the videos and download the study guides via their website (linked below). To do so, you will need to register (also free).
There are a couple of great podcasts you can listen to which can help extend and deepend your understanding of the practices and how you might implement them in life.