John Mark Comer lives, works and writes in the urban core of Portland, Oregon. He is the pastor for teaching and vision at Bridgetown Church, where he seeks to be a practitioner of the way of Jesus. Prior to that he was the lead pastor of one of the fastest growing megachurches in the USA.

He is a brilliant communicator. We recently had the privilege of hearing him speak at the National Vineyard Leaders Conference in Nottingham. He is also one of the two architects of an insightful and prophetic podcast called This Cultural Moment that we highly recommend. This Cultural Moment explores what following Jesus in a post-christian world means. It explores the secular, progressive, post-christian world in which we live and asks how followers of Jesus are meant to engage.

He is also a prolific young writer and we are sure we will recommend many of his books in the future!

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry is a book that has shaped quite a lot of the input into the recent teaching series ‘Burning Bridges’ here at Encounter. This book essentially explores what it means to stay emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in the chaos and complexity of our modern world.

It acknowledges that living as spiritually and mentally healthy followers of Jesus in our technological, calendar-driven culture, is quite challenging! In this book John Mark Comer shares his story of discovering a different way of life that is inspired by way and wisdom of Jesus. It is a practical, personal, and challenging call to imagine new ways that our lives can imitate Jesus.

This is a great book to read, either on your own, as a couple, or even as a Life Group. As one reviewer wrote: “it is like a tall glass of ice cold water on the hottest day of the year.”