John Mark Comer Goes War Room, Myers Briggs on Prayer

Since resigning from Bridgetown Church in Portland, John Mark Comer has returned in 2023 to launch his ministry Practicing the Way, which is a self-help website that purports to teach “on the ways of Jesus Himself that is conducive to deep inner healing and transformation.” In summary, John Mark Comer has gone from preaching at a church to selling Christianized self-help designed to “enhance” the individual Christian’s spiritual journey, but these practices are arrived at eisegesis, or more accurately narcigesis, not exegesis.

Last week, Christian Post published an excerpt from Comer’s upcoming book Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did. The book is slated to be released on January 16, 2024. While Christian Post published the excerpt as one of their op-eds, they would later remove the page from publication (as of 9/24). The excerpt was published under the headline, “Spiritual formation manifesto: Practical ways to follow Jesus,” and was retrieved via the Wayback Machine. Christian Post even promoted the article on their Facebook page but have not removed the post as of this writing. It is unclear why the excerpt was removed from Christian Post.

Jesus said something about prayer that I find surprising (which is not surprising). His first piece of advice was not about what to pray but where:

“When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the se­cret place, and your Father who sees in secret will re­ward you openly” (Matthew 6:6-7, NIV).

The word Jesus used for “room” is tameion in Greek, and it can also be translated “inner room.” Within a typical first-century Galilean home was an inner room, kind of like a closet or pantry, used to store food stuffs, and supplies. Most of life was spent out­doors, so the home was mostly for sleeping and storage. Jesus’ advice was to go hide in the tameion and there, “in secret,” pray.

The excerpt begins with a trite statement that uses Matthew 6:6-7 to argue that Christ first emphasizes where to pray before teaching on what to pray. Comer then uses the Greek tameion to further the point he is going to make, ignoring the context that is present in Matthew 6 where Jesus teaches to pray in secret rather than publicly, as the hypocrites do. Jesus condemns those who make theatre both prayer and charitable acts, contrasting their actions with those who do so in secret out of genuine righteousness. Thus, it sets up the premise for how to pray, as is demonstrated in the Lord’s Prayer.

I’m writing this book from a little office in an Oregon forest. It’s quiet, and the only distractions are those I brought to my own mind. Why here and not on a street corner downtown? Because I’m a person, in a body, and the environment matters. Certain environments help me focus on my work, while others sabotage my best intentions.

In the same way, if we want to reach the depth of life with God that Jesus modeled, we need to find a diversion-free place to get away and be alone with the Father. It could be an office in the woods, your bedroom late at night, or a park down the street from your house. Or if all else fails, a closet or pantry.

After ignoring the contrast between secret righteousness and hypocrisy, Comer then addresses his own need for seclusion, contending that all believers need to “find a diversion-free place” when this is not the purpose of Matthew 6. This is essentially arguing that all believers need to find their “War Room.”

The problem with the War Room mentality is that it blends New Age mysticism with Christianity, teaching that believers need to implement certain practices for the most effective faith. Justin Peters, in reviewing the Priscilla Shirer led, Kendrick brothers film, wrote the following on the concept of a War Room:

While there is certainly nothing wrong with praying in a closet if that is what one wants to do, the location is not the point. The point Jesus made in this text was not about location but attitude. The point is that we are not to make a show of our prayers as did the scribes and Pharisees and should remove any distractions which may divert our attention away from the One to Whom we are praying…Believing that there is some special power in the location itself is not only mystical, but borders on idolatry. The Object of our prayers and the condition of our hearts are the important things – not the location.

But Comer’s emphasis on location continues as he then emphasizes the practices of Christ during His ministry.

The point is that, like Jesus, we need to learn to hide.

When you read the four biographies of Jesus in the New Testa­ment, one thing is painfully clear: Jesus’ life template was based on a rhythm of retreat and return, like breathing in and then out. Jesus would retreat: He would slip away from the noise and press of the crowd and find a place where he could pray, alone or sometimes with a few very close friends. He would inhale. Then he would exhale, or return: He would come back to preach and teach and heal and deliver and offer love.

He would go on to cite Mark 1 and Luke 5 to emphasize the practice of Jesus, but it should be noted that Jesus was practicing that which He taught in Matthew 6. His seclusion also served as the pretext for walking on water, but He did not retreat for fear of being overwhelmed as is implied. Comer uses these passages to compare Christ’s prayers to a deep breathing exercise.

For Jesus, the secret place wasn’t just a place; it was a practice, a habit, a part of his life rhythm. He seemed to have little hiding places all over Israel where he would slip away to pray.

This practice from the life of Jesus has come to be called “the spiritual discipline of solitude, silence, and stillness.” And no mat­ter your personality type, whether you are a thinker or more of a doer, an introvert craving time alone or an extrovert ready to party “all day every day, baby,” this practice is absolutely vital to your spiritual life.

Here, Comer introduces his pop-psychology obsession by inserting personality types into prayer and spiritual discipline.

We all have excuses for why it’s hard to make time to pray, but many of them are just that — excuses. A push-pull dynamic is at work within all our hearts (myself included). Part of us deeply desires God, and part of us resists him and wants to rule over our own kingdoms, thank you very much.

This statement alone is not problematic, and the push-pull dynamic, as he describes, exists because of our sinful nature. Instead, he attributes too much weight to personality types and not enough on Man’s sinful nature.

But one reason so many people avoid the quiet is just because they have yet to find a way of being with God that is conducive to their personalities and stages of life. Yes, I’m an introvert…But I think of my friend Tyler who is nothing like me — full-tilt extrovert, action-oriented, father to three young boys. He goes to bed early and gets up every single day at 5 a.m. (because it’s the only time he’s not needed); he goes outside, prays a psalm on his porch, then goes prayer walking in a park across the street. He does this all year long, including all through the Portland winter. “The cold just makes me feel so alive,” he confided in me (when I asked if he was crazy).

Tyler and I have very different personalities, but we share an ache for God, and we have both come to love prayer. I do it sitting cross-legged in the quiet of my room; he does it walking in a city park in a raincoat. Different method, same goal.

Whoever he is, Tyler has established a disciplined routine of prayer. The problem is that too few churchgoers even make it a habit to read Scripture and pray daily. Then they wonder why their “prayer life” is insufficient. Having a routine is exhibited in Scripture, as Daniel prayed thrice daily towards Jerusalem, but this is not prescriptive. Tyler’s success is due to discipline, not personality type.

However, it should be noted the “feel so alive” comment could veer into mysticism and it would be to his detriment if Tyler is incapable of prayer without this habit.

When the secret place is turned into a preference-based devotional option for introverted intellectuals, it’s a great tragedy — similar to how in the Middle Ages a serious pursuit of Jesus was perceived as only for monks and nuns, not ordinary people. It’s a tragedy for extroverts because they never reach the depth of life with Jesus that is on offer. And it’s a tragedy for introverts, too, because a spiritual discipline that was designed to free us from ourselves and form us into people of self-giving love is twisted into “a little me-time for Dad to recharge,” which often does nothing but deepen our bondage to self, not liberate it.

His reductionist view of the Middle Ages denigrates prior generations of Christians who, without Latin literacy, were probably more biblically literate than most modern Americans. Comer uses this preconception of the past to split the baby on his war-room technique not being one-size-fits-all while warning against the excesses. The core problem with Comer’s teachings is that they are very self-centric.

So, work with your personality, not against it; tailor your practice to your Myers-Briggs type and stage of life but find your secret place. Go there as often as you can. Prioritize it. Fall in love with it, with God. Without quiet prayer, your life with God will wither; with it, you will come alive to the greatest joy of life: a familiar friendship with Jesus.

At the conclusion of the excerpt, Comer advocates tailoring one’s prayer practice with their pseudo-scientific Myers-Briggs personality, which it must be emphasized is neither scientific and is rooted in the occultism of Carl Jung. It does not matter if Comer understands the occultism that undergirds Myers Briggs, along with the Enneagram; whether cognizant or in ignorance, it is sinful to synergize satanic mysticism with prayer, and his reliance upon pop-psychology is why John Mark Comer cannot be trusted.

Improving Prayer

Believers should not have to purchase $26 hardcover self-help books to improve their prayer life, and too many wolves use these self-improvement guides when Scripture should be sufficient. To improve one’s prayer life, the first step is to establish spiritual disciplines, that is active times for studying Scripture (not some Bible app devotional) and prayer.

A second practice is to observe the Sabbath. The Sabbath was specifically designated as a day of rest so that one might receive proper instruction in the Lord. By refraining from labor and resting from the preoccupations of life, one can orient their heart towards the Lord. Sabbatarian debate aside, Christ fulfills the Sabbath Laws, but the principle of Sabbath remains and is entrenched in the 4^th Commandment. In Christ, believers should find eternal Sabbath and mark every day as a day of rest in the Lord.

A third practice is for believers to pray Scripture back to God, which can most easily be done with both the Lord’s Prayer and the Psalms. By praying through the Psalms, and meditating one’s prayer on the meaning of them, it will drastically improve one’s prayer practice. While the other two practices should be automatics for believers, this method recognizes Scripture as the template for prayer.

Conclusion

There is no secret formula. There is no book apart from Holy Scripture that can teach one to be like Jesus. All this “Practicing the Way” teaching is going to do is infuse pop-psychology and mysticism into Christian living, and these two things should never be mixed.