"What If Church Looked More Like AA" with John Ortberg

Nov 5

Show Notes:

Can people actually change — and if so, why is it so hard? Pastor and bestselling author John Ortberg joins Chris and Eddie to talk about his book Steps: A Guide to Transforming Your Life When Willpower Isn't Enough and what the Twelve Steps can teach the church about spiritual formation. John traces his path from clinical psychology into ministry, shares how Dallas Willard shaped his understanding of the kingdom of God as a present reality, and explains why the most transformed people often have what one recovery veteran called a robust “step one” — the gift of desperation. Along the way: why moral inventory starts with resentments, a fresh read on Ananias and Sapphira, the state of American Christianity, and a concrete first step for anyone looking for a fellowship and a way of life.

Resources:

• Steps: A Guide to Transforming Your Life When Willpower Isn't Enough — John Ortberg (the episode's focus)

• Steps Workbook — John Ortberg (Chris mentions it as recently published) • The Spirit of the Disciplines — Dallas Willard (John's recommendation for skeptics: read the introduction, slowly, more than once)

• Renovation of the Heart and The Divine Conspiracy — Dallas Willard

• Practicing the Way — John Mark Comer

• Ryan Burge's Substack — and The Weight's earlier episode “Rise of the Nones” with Ryan Burge (Feb 2023)

• Become New — John's weekday spiritual-formation teaching

• Alcoholics Anonymous / the Twelve Steps; the Oxford Group (the movement AA emerged from)

• Wesleyan band and class meetings; George Whitefield's “rope of sand”

• Acts 5 (Ananias and Sapphira); Acts 2:46

• Fast Company article on heart-surgery patients and behavior change (cited by Eddie; article not named on air)

Guest Links:

• Website: https://johnortberg.com

• Become New: https://www.becomenew.com

• Steps (book site): https://stepsguide.com