Welcome to the John Mark Comer Teaching's Podcast by Practicing the Way.

This teaching was first given at Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon as a part of the naming your stage in apprenticeship series.

Hi again, those of you walking in late and or in the annex, great to see all of you.

Sorry we don't have a better seat, but we're really happy that you're here.

My name is John Mark again, and if you're new or visiting our church is

built around this very simple idea of practicing the way of Jesus together in

Portland.

So what that looks like is every few months we take on a practice from the life and teachings

of Jesus of Nazareth and we adopt it as our own, we adapt it to our stage of life, our gender, our any of

a grand number, all of that stuff, and we work it out because we believe the

way of Jesus is exactly that it's a way of life.

And we do this to become more like Jesus, to be with Jesus,

and to live the way that he would live if he were us.

And last week we kicked off our spring practice of naming your stage of apprenticeship,

which is an attempt at spiritual cartography, an attempt to map the spiritual journey. Part one,

if you were here, was an overview of a stage theory paradigm that is ancient.

It goes all the way back to at least the second century, if not the first, called the three ways.

And it's awakening, which is essentially a priest stage where you come awake to the

reality of God and to your own soul in a culture that is asleep.

Come awake to the spiritual in a culture that is locked into the material.

Then you began on what the ancients called purgation and then illumination and then the

end goals with the ancient's called Union.

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