Take a casual survey of how people practice their faith, and you might reasonably conclude that Jesus spent his life going door to door offering private lessons, complete with chalkboard and pop quizzes. We think about God in the comfort of our own minds, in isolation from one another; meanwhile the world waits for a people to practice the way of Jesus together.Mark Scandrette contends that Jesus has in mind something more lively for us: not a classroom so much as a kingdom, where our formation takes place not only in our heads but in our hearts and our bodies, and in the company of one another, in a way that blesses the world we've been entrusted with. In Practicing the Way of Jesus Scandrette draws from his experience as a spiritual director and leader of an intentional community, as well as the best contemporary thinking on kingdom spirituality, to paint a picture of life lived together, in the way of Jesus–which is another way of saying life lived to the full.
Table of Content
Part One
1 An Invitation to Experiment
2 Following the Way of the Rabbi
3 Creating Space for Shared Practices
4 The Vision and Physicality of Spiritual Formation
5 How Practice Changes Us: The Inward/Outward Act of Transformation
Part Two
6 Designing and Initiating Experiments
7 Experiments in Identity
8 Experiments in Purpose
9 Experiments in Security
10 Experiments in Community
11 Experiments in Freedom Peace
Conclusion
Study Guide
Appendixes
Notes
About the author
Mark Scandrette is an author, teacher, activist, and networker among innovative Christian leaders. As the founding director of Re IMAGINE, a center for integral Christian practice based in San Francisco, he leads an annual series of retreats, learning labs, conversations, and projects designed to help participants integrate the teachings of Christ into every aspect of life through shared practices and community experiments. Mark is the author of FREE: Spending Your Time and Money on What Matters Most, Practicing the Way of Jesus, and Soul Graffiti.A sought after voice for creative, radical, and embodied Christian practice, Mark speaks nationally and internationally at universities, conferences, and churches, and offers training and coaching to leaders and organizations. He assisted in the development of CONSP!RE Magazine and has contributed to publications like Leadership Journal and Conversations Journal and books such as An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, Community of Kindness, and The Relevant Church. He currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at Fuller Seminary, and his work has been profiled in books that include The Shaping of Things to Come by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost, Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger, I.AM.RELEVANT by the Relevant Media group, and The New Conspirators by Tom Sine. Mark and his wife Lisa and their three children live in the Mission District of San Francisco. He enjoys running, biking, cooking, dumpster diving, home coffee roasting, long city walks, going on dates with Lisa, and watching T.V. and films with their kids.