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's John Mark.

Again, and if you're new, we're 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 anyogram 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 and attempt to map the spiritual journey.

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

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 pre-stage, or 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 begin on what the ancients called pergation and then illumination,

and then the end goal is what the ancients called union.

...