📘 What is a Follower of The Way? — Resource Guide

Dates: August 16–September 6, 2026

Subtitle: Lessons of regret from Jesus’ baby brother.

Key Passages: The Book of James (Sequential)

SERIES OVERVIEW

James grew up in the same house as Jesus. He ate at the same table, played in the same yard, and yet he did not believe. It was not until the Resurrection that the light turned on. His letter carries the urgency of someone who knows what it is like to be close to Jesus and still miss Him.

James is practical, punchy, and urgent. He refuses to let belief remain data; belief has to become behavior. Across four weeks, we will walk sequentially through James and ask what a true apprentice of Jesus looks like in ordinary life. The four markers named in the series overview are integrity, hospitality, wisdom, and humility, expressed through Menlo’s Kingdom Qualities: Undivided Follower, Unhurried Friend, Thoughtful Witness, and Sacrificial Developer.

FORMATION PRACTICE

The Daily Consistency Audit

For the duration of the series, end each day with a simplified version of the Prayer of Examen. Write your answers rather than only thinking about them:

• Where did my actions match my words today?

• Where was I “double-minded” today?

Do not turn the practice into another scorecard. The point is to notice. James compares the Word to a mirror: transformation begins when we stay long enough to see what is true and then respond. Over four weeks, pay attention to repeated patterns. Where is God bringing your beliefs and behavior closer together?

THE FOUR WEEKS

WEEK 1 — THE MIRROR | Undivided Follower

James 1:1–8, 22–25 | Big Idea: You cannot follow Jesus with a divided heart.

James writes to people who are scattered, but his deeper concern is the fragmentation happening inside them. The Word is a mirror that shows us who we really are. The invitation is not merely to hear, agree, or admire; it is to stay at the mirror long enough for what we hear to become the way we live.

Practice: Commit to the Daily Consistency Audit and identify one area of your life—finances, speech, calendar, relationships, or another place—that has not yet been surrendered to Jesus.

WEEK 2 — THE VELVET ROPE | Unhurried Friend

James 2:1–13 | Big Idea: The Kingdom has no VIP section.

James confronts partiality: the instinct to give greater attention and honor to people with status, wealth, access, or usefulness. In our context, the tension can look like networking versus friendship. A follower of the Way creates room for the marginalized, the awkward, and the person who can offer nothing in return.

Practice: Take the Open Seat Challenge. Invite someone to a meal or meaningful conversation who is outside your normal circle or cannot advance your status or career.

WEEK 3 — SMALL FIRE, BIG FOREST | Thoughtful Witness

James 3:1–18 | Big Idea: Your words are the rudder of your life and your witness.

James describes the tongue as powerful enough to direct a life and dangerous enough to ignite a forest. In an era of hot takes, outrage, and constant reaction, a Thoughtful Witness is marked not only by what they say, but by what they refuse to say. James contrasts earthly wisdom—envy and selfish ambition—with wisdom from above that is pure, peace-loving, considerate, merciful, and sincere.

Practice: Try a seven-day Complaint Fast, or send three intentional notes of encouragement to people you disagree with or find difficult.

WEEK 4 — THE VAPOR | Sacrificial Developer

James 4:13–17; 5:1–6, 16 | Big Idea: Your life is a mist; spend it on what lasts.

James closes with warnings to the arrogant planner and the hoarder of wealth. Life is a vapor, so the question is not how much we can accumulate before it disappears, but what we can invest in people and purposes that will outlast us. Humility changes the way we hold our plans, resources, suffering, and prayers.

Practice: Conduct a Generosity Audit. Look at your calendar and your budget. What percentage is being invested in people and purposes that will outlast you?

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

Read James from beginning to end at least once during the series. It is short enough to read in one sitting. Then return to the passage for each week and read it slowly. Keep three questions nearby:

• Mirror: What is James showing me about myself?

• Mismatch: Where are my beliefs and my behavior moving in different directions?

• Movement: What is one thing I can actually do with what I have heard?

James is not asking us to collect more religious information. He is calling us toward an integrated life with Jesus. When God shows you something, resist the urge to immediately move on to something new. Stay with it. Practice it. Let it form you.

RESOURCES FOR THE SERIES

The Series Overview specifically recommends the following books and resources. The links below point to publisher or official resource pages wherever possible.

TO READ

• The Letter of James — Scot McKnight (NICNT) — The deeper commentary recommended in the Series Overview. McKnight places James in its Jewish, Greco-Roman, and early Christian context while keeping an eye on how the letter speaks to congregations and everyday discipleship.

• A Long Obedience in the Same Direction — Eugene Peterson — A classic on steady discipleship in an instant society. Peterson’s vision of patient, durable obedience fits the series’ movement from information about Jesus toward a life increasingly formed in His Way.

• Just Do Something — Kevin DeYoung — Recommended in the Series Overview for Week 4. A short, practical book about God’s will, wise decision-making, and the freedom to faithfully do what God has already made clear.

TO WATCH & EXPLORE

• BibleProject — Book of James Overview — A concise visual overview of James, its literary design, wisdom themes, and call to a life wholly devoted to God.

• Practicing the Way — The Solitude Practice — The Series Overview points to Practicing the Way for resources on silence and solitude. This practice creates space to step away from distraction, become present to God, and notice what is happening within us.

• Practicing the Way — Resources — A broader library of practices and companion guides for building intentional rhythms of apprenticeship to Jesus.

TO LISTEN

• Menlo Midweek Podcast — Menlo’s ongoing deeper-dive conversation around weekend messages. The Series Overview also proposes a conversation around double-mindedness and anxiety; watch the Menlo podcast feed for series-specific episodes as they are released.

QUESTIONS TO CARRY THROUGH THE SERIES

• If your calendar is a curriculum, what is it currently teaching you to become?

• Where is the greatest distance between what you say you believe and the way you actually live?

• Where are you most tempted to become “double-minded”—asking God for one thing while keeping another plan in reserve?

• Who gets the most present and unhurried version of you? Who tends to get what is left?

• What do your words consistently reveal about the condition of your heart?

• What are you building, funding, or giving your attention to that will outlast you?

• What has Jesus already taught you that does not need another explanation—it needs your obedience?

A PRAYER FOR THE SERIES

Jesus, our lives can become divided without us ever deciding for them to be. Our calendars fill, our attention scatters, our words move faster than our wisdom, and we can become familiar with You without increasingly becoming like You. Thank You for meeting us in the middle of our scattered lives.

Give us the courage to stay at the mirror of Your Word. Make us undivided followers who bring our whole lives under Your leadership, unhurried friends who make room for people, thoughtful witnesses whose words carry conviction and compassion, and sacrificial developers who invest what You have given us in people and purposes that will outlast us.

By Your Spirit, close the distance between our beliefs and our behavior. Show us where we are double-minded, and give us the humility to respond when You reveal something that needs to change. Form us into people who do not simply know the Way of Jesus, but increasingly live it. Amen.

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