Choose the day and time that fits best with your time zone and schedule. 

Monday Cohort. 4-6 p.m. Pacific time, 5-7 P.M. Mountain, 6-8 P.M. Central, 7-9 p.m. Eastern

Meeting Dates:

• September 15

• October 13

• November 17

• December 15

• January 12

• February 16

• March 16

• April 13

• May 18

• June 15

Wednesday Cohort. 11-1 p.m. Pacific, 7-9 p.m. British, 8-10 p.m. Central European

Meeting Dates:

• September 17

• October 15

• November 19

• December 17

• January 14

• February 18

• March 18

• April 15

• May 20

• June 17

Mark and Lisa Scandrette, and potentially other past participants and ReIMAGINE board members. 

Mark and Lisa Scandrette are cofounders of ReIMAGINE: A Center For Living Wisdom. For the past 25 years, they have worked together to create spaces where people can consider how to integrate the teachings of Jesus into everyday life. Mark also teaches in the Doctoral Program at Fuller Seminary and has written several books on practical spiritual formation, including Practicing the Way of Jesus and The Ninefold Path of Jesus. Together Mark and Lisa wrote FREE: Spending Your Time on What Matters Most and BELONGING AND BECOMING: Creating a Thriving Family Culture. They love living in The Mission, a vibrant urban neighborhood in San Francisco. 

$750-$1200 sliding scale

What is included with your cohort membership: membership in a group of like-minded friends, monthly cohort gatherings, learning materials, guidance and structure for your small group interactions, ongoing feedback and support from the facilitation team, and an optional in-take session with Mark and Lisa.  

We aim to make this learning community accessible to a wide variety of people and economically sustainable for those who put time and effort into planning and facilitation. We invite you to choose a sliding scale level of commitment that reflects your financial position.  

Choose towards the high end of the scale if you are financially comfortable, have an organization sponsoring your participation, or if you would like to help scholarship a low-income participant. 

Choose towards the low end of the scale if you have a limited income and must provide for others or are recovering from major financial setbacks.

 Scholarships: If your ability to contribute is below $750, please contact us to inquire about a significantly reduced scholarship rate. (We do ask scholarship recipients to contribute a minimum amount to demonstrate their commitment to the process). No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Payments: You can arrange to pay your full amount up front, in two installments, or in monthly automatic payments. If, for some reason, you need to withdraw from the learning community, you can contact us to request a partial refund.

Participate in all sessions. If you do have to miss a session, please let the facilitators know ahead of time. Sessions will be recorded.

Do the suggested exercises and practices. This includes a monthly journal entry, a daily practice, reflection on wisdom texts, and an action step you prayerfully discern. 

Check in on your experiences with your breakout group. You will journey with a group of 3-4 people who schedule a time midway through each month to check in on practices and help each other discern an action/experiment step. 

Help create a brave and trusting space where it is safe to be honest. Share authentically. Listen with curiosity. Demonstrate love and respect. Refrain from giving unsolicited advice. 

Share yourself with the group. On occasion, we may invite you to pray, tell part of your story, or share music, a poem, or a piece of artwork that you love. 

ESTIMATED MONTHLY TIME COMMITMENT:

Monthly Gathering:  2-2.5 hours

Mid-Month Break Out Group Check-in: 1 hour

Journaling and daily practices: 5-7 hours

Action or experiment:  1-5 hours

1. THE WAY OF TRUST: How am I being invited to trust God/Creator more fully with my life right now?

2. THE WAY OF LAMENT: What is the grief and darkness that I might need to face in order to heal, grow, and love?

3. THE WAY OF HUMILITY: Who am I? And how can I relate to others from a place of dignity, equality, respect, and interdependence?

4. THE WAY OF JUSTICE: How can I embrace and use the power I have to love and seek the common good?

5. THE WAY OF COMPASSION: Where am I in the process of internalizing grace, forgiving myself and others, and expressing compassion?

6. THE WAY OF RIGHT-MOTIVE: How am I being invited to become more intimate with God, honest with myself, and whole-hearted in my actions?

7. THE WAY OF PEACEMAKING: How can I be a peacemaker, initiating reconciliation when I’m wrong, expressing healthy boundaries and differentiation in my relationships, and offering radical hospitality and welcome?

8. THE WAY OF SURRENDER (non-violent resistance): How am I being invited to face difficulties with resiliency, respond to opposition with creative resistance, and seek to love no matter what the cost? 

9. THE WAY OF RADICAL LOVE (True Self): Where am I in the process of dying to the old/false self, experiencing divine union, accepting impermanence, and letting go of fear to embrace radical love?

In addition to exploring core themes from the Sermon on the Mount, the cohort is designed to help you cultivate seven sustaining spiritual practices:

1. CONTEMPLATIVE VISION. Jesus regularly spent time alone communing with the Divine.  We want to encourage you to regularly practice contemplative activities that help you to be self-aware and develop a daily interactive relationship with God. This might include journaling, centering/ contemplative prayer, meditative walks, and occasional extended times of silence and solitude.

2. EMBODIMENT. Jesus lived within the needs and limits of his body. Our bodies are central to spiritual development. We want to encourage you to cultivate somatic practices that help you self-regulate, manage energy, and activate the intelligence of your body (i.e. walking, body movement, breath work, good nutrition, sleep, etc).

3. SPIRITUAL COMPANIONSHIP. Jesus lived out his journey with close friends and maintained connections to his family. We want to encourage you to cultivate authentic relationships where you can be honest, get feedback, and receive guidance and support. This might include a close spiritual relationship with a partner or friend, being part of a peer-led group (like your cohort breakout group), and a one-to-one relationship with a spiritual director, therapist, mentor, or coach). If you don’t have a one-to-one guide to support you, we can help you find a spiritual director/coach. 

4. LEARNING AND STUDY. Jesus studied and critically engaged with the sacred texts and wisdom of his culture.  We want to encourage you to cultivate intentional learning and critical engagement with trusted sources of wisdom, knowledge, and inspiration. Together we will look at the words ascribed to Jesus and the Hebrew texts that he was familiar with.

5. LOVING WELCOME. Jesus often went to parties, opened his life to an expanding cast of characters, and gave preferential attention to those in suffering and struggle. We want to encourage you to develop a lifestyle of radical hospitality, care, and advocacy for those who suffer and to strengthen relationships across differences in race, class, and culture. We’ll invite you to take new risks to do this in your experiments related to the core themes in the Sermon on the Mount. 

6. PRESENT AWARENESS. Jesus lived with and encouraged watchful awareness.  He faced temptations and confronted distorted messages about safety and security, power and control, and ego and esteem.  How we experience life is dramatically affected by our moment-by-moment reactions. We want to encourage you to develop the capacity to pause, notice your thoughts, feelings, and reactions, and discern what love is inviting you to. 

7. ALIGNMENT. Jesus knew what he was about and carefully directed his time, energy, and attention towards his core purpose.  We want to encourage you to be focused and discern how to best direct your time, energy, attention, possessions, and finances toward what matters most.

• We are rooted in the Christian tradition and recognize Jesus as our primary exemplar and source of wisdom.

• We acknowledge wisdom wherever it can be found, and look for harmony between various sources of knowledge (including scripture, science, philosophy, psychology, the arts, and various historic religious and cultural traditions). 

• We learn by doing, not just by thinking. “If anyone hears my words and puts them into practice they are…wise.” 

• We show what we believe and value, primarily by how we live, not by what we say we believe or value. 

• We are all co-learners. Those who guide and facilitate also participate and honor the wisdom and experience other community members have to share. “You have one Teacher, and you are all [siblings].”

• Everything matters and spiritual development involves every aspect of our lives (Relationships, family, money, work, civic engagement, our bodies, etc).  

• We are committed to self-examination and interrogating societal norms, systems, and structures. 

• We seek intersectional and critical awareness of power, privilege, race, and gender dynamics. 

• We strive to be invitational rather than prescriptive. We avoid voicing strong positions on matters where our individual opinions are inconsequential or divisive. We invite each person to critically discern and commit to their own next steps of belief and action. 

• We celebrate creativity, beauty, and the preciousness of the earth’s ecology.

“When you join this Learning Community you are setting out on a journey with a band of present-day disciples, supporting one another as you work out what it really means to put into practice the ways of Jesus in the nitty-gritty reality of daily life. For anyone with the heart's desire to walk authentically in the footsteps of Jesus, I can't recommend PTWOJ enough!”

"It's hard to find a learning cohort that strikes a good balance between reflection and practice, but the PTWOJ cohort did this so well. It was centered on the solid foundation of the countercultural teachings of Jesus AND connected to our present cultural context. There are many insights and new practices that I will take with me from this experience.”

“I would recommend this learning community to anyone who wants to learn more about the way of Jesus AND live the way of Jesus. This group experience has the potential to radically reshape your life.”

“Two or more gathered virtually can work— surprisingly well!”

“The Practicing the Way of Jesus (PTWOJ) cohort experience helped me engage my heart, mind, and body to become more like Christ. Growing with this diverse community was a humbling, beautiful experience. My heart is softened towards God, myself and others.”

“The Beatitudes are familiar to most as part of one of the most famous sermons Jesus ever delivered, but there is a richness in learning how to integrate the beatitudes into our daily lives. In the Practicing the Way of Jesus lab, that is exactly what happens, and it is a beautiful experience.”

“Just do it!”

“The outstanding impact of this learning community was the way each month's theme directly related in real time to my current life experience. It enabled me to address and process difficult and painful circumstances within a neutral and supportive community. By the end, it felt as if the jumbled pieces of Jesus’ teaching finally slotted into place, creating a picture of wholeness. I’ve gained a hope-filled vision of life that I want to continue to pursue.  I experienced a significant spiritual shift and a level of healing that is enabling me to begin to make healthy reconnections where I previously felt isolated and dislocated. I greatly appreciate Mark and Lisa's integrity. Their ability to encourage and inspire spiritual growth in others is born out of their own lived experience. They practise what they teach and share the wisdom they have gained with generosity and humility. I appreciate their realism and transparency, their positivity, perseverance in the face of difficulties, and their evident love and care for others. I appreciate their willingness to bring constructive challenge whilst maintaining a community which is entirely supportive and without judgement or condemnation.”

Will there be interactions with other participants? 

Yes, we believe that high-trust relationships and robust conversations are an integral part of spiritual formation. Each gathering will be interactive and will include discussion time in groups of  3-4. You will be encouraged to communicate with your break-out group weekly and invited to self-schedule a check-in time with each other mid-way through the month. As a group, we may opt to switch up break-out groups halfway through the year so that you can get to know more people. 

Is this something I can do with my spouse or partner?

Yes, we encourage couples to be part of this learning community together. Some couples like to be in break-out groups together and others find that the dynamics are better when they are in separate groups. You can state your preference when you register. 

Can I receive CEU (continuing education units) or a certificate of completion for my participation? 

Yes, past participants in our offerings have received CEU credit units for participating. Usually, this is done by having your governing organization communicate with Reimagine to confirm eligibility. We are happy to provide you with a certificate of completion. 

I’m tired of Zoom meetings, is there an in-person option?

Ideally, we’d each live close enough that we could meet in person. We will do our best to make our online sessions dynamic and interactive and we will coach you about how you can help accomplish that. One of the surprising benefits of meeting online is the chance to make friends across borders and cultures— which can help broaden our perspectives. 

Is this similar to the Ninefold Path Lab that you previously offered?

This current learning community invitation is in response to the feedback we received from many previous Ninefold Path Lab participants who said that the dense content and intensity of weekly homework tasks didn’t allow space to fully internalize the material. They also expressed a desire for a longer-term community of supportive relationships. We will be using the same basic framing of Beatitude themes, but there will be expanded options for journal prompts, suggested practices, and a fuller exploration of key texts from the gospels. 

Will individual and group processing be primarily through writing or live dialogue? 

Because some of us are internal processors and others of us are external processors we try to strike a balance between written and verbal interactions.  Although not all of us are naturally drawn to journaling, research suggests that it is an important part of developing self-awareness and whole-brain integration. We invite people to share journal entries and written reflections with their breakout group and lead facilitators to receive feedback and support. We encourage people to carefully consider what they feel comfortable sharing with others.  

Some of the language and concepts you use sound more psychological than religious or Christian. Why is that?

By our observations, over many centuries the simple and revolutionary message of Jesus has been obscured by the accumulation of religious dogmas, doctrines, theological complexities, and traditions. Our goal is to explore the way of Jesus with an awareness of contemporary questions and longings, using everyday language that acknowledges psychological realities.  If we are going to live in a new way, then we also have to learn to think and respond to life in new ways. We also have a desire to be sensitive to people who have been hurt by their previous religious beliefs and experiences.

What if I have difficulties with someone in my breakout group?

How we work through tensions and conflict is an important part of our growth in love. We will do our best to provide guidance to promote a generative culture in your break-out group. You can contact the facilitators if you need help. In some cases, we may recommend reconstituting the group. 

What is your refund and withdrawal policy?

If, for some reason, you need to withdraw from the learning community, you can contact us to request a partial refund. 

What if I want to learn to lead a practicing community? Can you help me with that?

The best first place to start is by participating in this learning community. If you are interested in further leadership training, please let us know. We provide coaching and have also hosted leadership cohorts around these themes.