Practicing The Way: Following Jesus

It is not whether or not you are being formed, but who or what is forming you?

We are all being formed. We receive thousands of subtle and not-so-subtle messages each day and are shaping the ways we see ourselves, our world, and God.

Mark 1:16-18 says,

16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.

The call to follow Jesus is a call to drop our “nets” and to learn to follow Jesus with our lives. This process has typically been called discipleship, but we are introducing a new word for this process: apprenticeship. We are called, as the late Dallas Willard said, to be an apprentice of Jesus. Think about how seeing yourself as an apprentice of the rabbi Jesus might change how you see the process of spiritual formation.

We will be taking the next 8 weeks at Resurrection Life NYC to learn what it means to follow Jesus practically: How to be his apprentice. How can we leave our “nets” and follow Jesus? What specifically does this mean? How does it impact how we live here in NYC or wherever we find ourselves.

In our achievement-oriented culture, following Jesus means learning how to place Jesus above our careers, above our accolades, and above our bank accounts. Following Jesus means learning how to 1) be with Jesus, 2) become like Jesus, and 3) do what Jesus did. Like Daniel in Babylon, it means often going against the grain of the culture in order live a faithful life to God.

Welcome to this highly practical journey as we learn to practice the way of Jesus.

I would encourage you to listen to the entire message here.