John Mark discusses the essential nature of community in our walk with Jesus, highlighting the role our brothers and sisters play in our formation. He encourages intentional connections and deep roots in finding community, emphasizing the importance of genuine relationships in countering loneliness and fostering personal growth.

“Most people are just too busy to live an emotionally healthy and spiritually rich life.”We live in an age of chronic distraction and business. John Mark talks about hurry as the great enemy of our spiritual life. He proposes that the solution to “hurry sickness” is not more time, but rather become people of love through being intentional with our own “rule of life.”Key Scripture Passage: Luke 10v25-37Resources for this practice:https://practicingthewayarchives.org/practices/unhurry

John Mark, a speaker who discusses the influences that shape our lives and who we become, challenges us to be intentional with our beliefs, habits, relationships, and experiences to form us into people of love. Topics include the tension of multiple selves and character development, the lifelong process of spiritual formation, exploring narratives of sexuality and gender, the power of stories and habits, shaping our hearts and desires, and aligning loves and longings with God's desires.

In previous episodes of the Rule of Life podcast, listeners tune in to a roundtable discussion as well as audio-snippets from luminary thinkers, pastors, and apprentices who are following Jesus in the every day. Featured in the Sabbath series (season 1) is luminary thinker, Tish Harrison Warren. This episode of the Rule of Life podcast is the interview between John Mark and Tish in its entirety. In this episode they cover the sacredness of ordinary life, the ethical implications of Sabbath, and the importance of Spiritual, bodily habituation.About TishTish Harrison Warren is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. She is the author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life (Christianity Today's 2018 Book of the Year) and Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work, or Watch, or Weep (Christianity Today's 2022 Book of the Year and 2022 ECPA Christian Book of the Year).Currently, Tish writes a weekly newsletter for The New York Times, and she is a columnist for Christianity Today. Her articles and essays have appeared in Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Comment Magazine, The Point Magazine, The New York Times, and elsewhere.For over a decade, Tish has worked in ministry settings as a campus minister with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries, as an associate rector, and with addicts and those in poverty through various churches and non-profit organizations. Now, Tish serves as Writer in Residence at Resurrection South Austin. She is a founding member of The Pelican Project and a Senior Fellow with the Trinity Forum. She lives with her husband and three children in the Austin, Texas area.

Community is non-optional for disciples of Jesus. But in our modern world, it is easy to mistake our connectivity with community. In this teaching, John Mark communicates the importance of community and how we, as disciples of Jesus, are called to live life with others. But community is more than a command: it is the context where we are transformed, exposing what’s actually inside of us and encouraging us in our walk with God. John Mark finishes by giving practical guidance on how to practice community and a testimony of how God can use community to reveal His calling on our lives. Key Scripture Passages: Matthew 4v18-22; Matthew 9v9-13; Matthew 10v1-5; Matthew 20v20-28; Acts 2v42-47; Acts 4v32-35; Acts 5v1-6Resources for this practice:https://practicingthewayarchives.org/practices/practicing-the-way

“If your rule of life does not find a way to ruthlessly eliminate digital distraction, it will likely fail.”Is distraction undermining our spiritual life? John Mark makes a case for a rule of life that accounts for our society of digital distraction by highlighting how our technology can be unhealthy for us. He also offers some guidance on shaping your rule of life to avert digital distraction and help orient your life towards becoming a person of love.Key Scripture Passage: Psalm 16Resources for this practice:https://practicingthewayarchives.org/practices/unhurry

“The farther we get down the path of the spiritual journey, the more our apprenticeship to Jesus feels less and less active, and more and more passive.”John Mark continues with our discussion on the stages of apprenticeship, this time talking about active and passive spirituality and its role in our formation. He shows us how to use practice (active) and surrender (passive) to be more formed into the likeness of Jesus in every season of our lives.Key Scripture Passages: John 21v18; Matthew 6v25-34Resources for this practice:https://practicingthewayarchives.org/practices/namingSacred Fire, Ronald Rolheiser

Jesus intended his followers to become a family-like community. John Mark talks about how this idea of family was radical not only for first-century Jews, but also why it’s just as radical for us today. Through it, he offers advice on how to build relational skills to bless and love our communities well.Key Scripture Passage: Mark 3v31-35Resources for this practice:https://practicingthewayarchives.org/practices/community

“What if there is a rich gift waiting for us in this new cultural moment of rising hostility?”John Mark discusses what it meant in the early church to be a witness and how that applies to how we share the Gospel. He argues that the call of Jesus isn't just to preach the good news, but it's also to become 'good news people.'Key Scripture Passage: 1 Peter 2v11-12Resources for this practice:https://practicingthewayarchives.org/practices/preaching-the-gospelThis podcast and its episodes are paid for by The Circle, our community of monthly givers. Special thanks for today’s episode goes to Tarrah from Ames, Iowa; Paul from Cleveland, Ohio; Guy from Wenatchee, Washington; Benjamin from Herborn, Germany; and Matthew from Beaverton, Oregon. Thank you all so much!If you’d like to pay it forward and contribute toward future resources, you can learn more at practicingtheway.org/give.

John Mark, a speaker who delves into the power of prayer and fasting, discusses how these two practices can transform our spiritual lives. He shares compelling insights on the historical Dunkirk evacuation, linking it to collective prayer and divine interventions. Listeners learn about the synergistic relationship between fasting and prayer, enhancing discernment and decision-making. Emphasizing repentance and God's responsive nature, John encourages embracing these practices for deeper connection and spiritual transformation.