Ten Movements of The Jesus Way
Graham Joseph Hill
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An Invitation to Practice The Movements of "The Jesus Way"
WHEN I CAME TO FAITH in Jesus Christ in my teenage years, it was a response to the person and message of Jesus himself.
I’d decided I didn’t want to be a Christian because my experience of so many Christians was negative. I saw too much hypocrisy, apathy, and cultural compromise.
I look back now and feel some shame about these views. When we’re young, we can often be judgmental. Nonetheless, I had these barriers to belief.
But then I read the four Gospels afresh, and the Way of Jesus gripped my heart and mind.
What radical love, astonishing grace, compelling justice and righteousness, and transforming truth and sacrifice!
The Jesus Way captured my heart and imagination.
The ten movements of the Jesus Way aren’t abstract ideals but embodied practices that reorient our lives toward love, justice, and grace. These movements include shifting from material success to spiritual riches, competition to compassion, exclusion to embrace, and legalism to grace. The Jesus Way is the path of discipleship and a transformed life.7 How often do we believe in the Way of Jesus but struggle to live it? Without practice, faith remains theoretical, detached from the world’s deep hunger for mercy and healing.
The Jesus Way is about opening our hearts to God’s transforming presence, allowing divine grace to accomplish what sheer willpower and self-improvement programs cannot. Left to our own efforts, we bend toward selfishness, pride, and control, but when we surrender, the Spirit reshapes us. Too often we mistake discipleship for self-improvement, but the Spirit of Christ lovingly invites us to trust in divine transformation.
{ related content @ #ReimagineDiscipleship: Biblical Foundations}
Interview
Ten Movements of the Jesus Way
Shifting from Worldly Self-Interest to Radical Discipleship
The Way for the Western Church to Rediscover Its Soul
You’ve written more than twenty books. What typically inspires the next one, and what, in particular, inspired this new book?
Graham Hill: Every book I write begins with a question that unsettles me, something I can’t shake until I’ve wrestled with it prayerfully, biblically, and personally. Ten Movements of the Jesus Way emerged from my longing to rediscover what it truly
means to follow Jesus amid cultural noise, distraction, and division. I was haunted by how easily we talk about discipleship but how seldom we live it in ways that resemble Jesus humility, compassion, and justice.
This book was born out of my own failures and rediscoveries. I’ve seen how the Way of Jesus can transform fear into peace, rivalry into compassion, and striving into surrender. I wanted to write a guide that helps readers not only believe in Jesus but also walk in his steps slowly, courageously, and together.
What is the “Jesus Way,” and why is it so radical, compelling, countercultural, necessary, and needed today?
Graham: The Jesus Way is a life of radical discipleship shaped by love, grace, humility, and justice. It’s the way of kneeling when the world tells you to stand tall, of forgiving when culture urges revenge, of embracing when others exclude. It’s the narrow way that rejects the idols of power, success, and self-preservation, choosing instead to serve, surrender, and love.
In an age obsessed with image, control, and comfort, the Jesus Way feels foolish, and that’s precisely why it’s so liberating. It frees us from the tyranny of self and reorients us toward God’s kingdom of mercy and peace. This way isn’t just countercultural; it’s the only way that leads to life abundant and whole.
You provide ten countercultural ways that Christians can live as people of “The Way.” Why these ten?
Graham: Each of the ten movements arose from a deep reflection on the four Gospels, asking what Jesus valued, modeled, and spoke about. The movements also arose from years of pastoral work, global engagement, and personal reflection. They’re not abstract ideals but living practices drawn from Jesus’ teachings: moving from competition to compassion, power to servanthood, exclusion to embrace, and activity to stillness.
I chose these ten because they name the idols that disease our hearts (materialism, legalism, rivalry, conflict, and hurry) and offer the healing practices that can transform us into Christ’s likeness. Each movement is both an inner conversion and an outward practice, a way of being that can reshape our relationships, churches, and societies from the inside out.
Which of the ten ways, in your experience, is most challenging for Christians today?
Graham: The most difficult for many of us, including me, is moving from frenetic activity to slow discipleship. We live in an age of exhaustion, where worth is measured by busyness. But Jesus moved at the pace of love, not efficiency. He had time for interruptions, for children, for meals, for silence.
I’ve learned the hard way that discipleship isn’t about how much we achieve for God but how deeply we dwell with God.
Learning to slow down (to pray, listen, rest, and simply be) requires unlearning everything our culture teaches us about success.
Yet it’s in that slowing that God restores our souls, and we rediscover what it means to be fully alive.
The chapter on “Moving from Conflict to Peacemaking” feels especially relevant today. What are three ways we can move toward peacemaking?
Graham: First, we start by naming our own complicity in conflict, including our pride, fear, and defensiveness. Peacemaking always begins in the heart before it ever touches politics or institutions.
Second, we practice empathy. Listening deeply to those who differ from us, not to win an argument but to understand, is a profoundly spiritual act. It’s how we honor the image of God in others.
And third, we act courageously in pursuit of reconciliation. Peacemaking isn’t passive; it means stepping into broken spaces with truth and tenderness. In every sphere (families, churches, communities, neighborhoods, cities, and nations), we can choose to be bridge-builders who absorb pain rather than pass it on. That doesn’t mean that we accept abuse; it means that we tell the truth in love while also seeking ways to be reconciled to others and live with compassion and in peace.
In what ways do you bring a global perspective to this book?
Graham: I’ve spent decades learning from Christians across continents: communities in the Philippines, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and First Nations cultures. These sisters and brothers have taught me that the Way of Jesus always takes local shape but carries a global heartbeat.
Their faith (often forged amid hardship) reveals a Christ who isn’t Western, wealthy, or comfortable but one who dwells among those experiencing poverty, persecution, and marginalization. Jesus dwells among those who cry out to God. Their stories remind me that discipleship is costly love. This global perspective calls the Western church to humility, repentance, and rediscovery of the simple gospel of Jesus Christ.
How do you envision these movements transforming the Western church?
Graham: If the Western church were to embrace these ten movements, it would rediscover its soul. Instead of competing for influence, we’d become known for compassion. Instead of protecting privilege, we’d embody servanthood. Instead of preaching success, we’d practice simplicity.
Transformation begins not with programs but with posture: with hearts willing to be re-formed by Christ’s Spirit. I hope that churches would become communities of radical love, where the Beatitudes are lived, not merely admired. The world doesn’t need a louder church; it needs a humbler, holier, more loving one. That’s what these movements are about: becoming people who, by grace, look more like Jesus.
What do you hope readers will feel and do after reading Ten Movements of the Jesus Way?
Graham: I hope they’ll feel both disturbed and comforted: disturbed by how far we’ve drifted from Jesus’ radical simplicity and comforted by how near grace always is. I hope they’ll find the courage to live differently: to forgive someone, slow down, give generously, stand with the marginalized, or let go of control.
I want readers to know this: Jesus doesn’t just point to the path. He walks it with us. The Way of Jesus isn’t a theory to be studied, but a life to be lived, and a relationship that changes everything.
Graham Joseph Hill, Theologian and Award-Winning Author
“I write about Christian spirituality and its significance for our lives, our culture, and our shared existence. My reflections explore how the Way of Jesus shapes the inner life, nurtures compassion, and calls us into courageous engagement with the world. I believe the gospel speaks not only to our faith but also to the deepest wounds of our societies—inviting us into practices of justice, reconciliation, and love . . .
“Following Jesus is never only about private devotion; it’s about walking a road of hope, healing, and wholeness that transforms us and the world around us. I aim to encourage a spirituality that’s honest, grounded, and hospitable—a spirituality that forms us in the Way of Jesus for the sake of others and the common good.”
- learn more at GrahamJosephHill.com
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Graham Joseph Hill (PhD, Flinders University) is an adjunct research fellow and associate professor at Charles Sturt University. In 2024, he received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to theological education. Hill is one of Australia’s most prolific and awarded Christian authors. He’s written more than twenty books, including Salt, Light, and a City, which won the 2012 Jesus Creed
Book of the Year (church category); Healing Our Broken Humanity (with Grace Ji-Sun Kim), named Outreach Magazine’s 2019 Book of the Year (culture category); and World Christianity, shortlisted for the 2025 Australian Christian Book of the Year. He lives in Sydney with his wife Shyn.
Krista Clayton, Director of Publicity * kclayton@ivpress.com
Contents
Introduction Practicing the Ten Movements of the Jesus Way
1 Moving from Material Success to Spiritual Riches
2 Moving from Competition to Compassion
3 Moving from Power to Servanthood
4 Moving from Retribution to Forgiveness
5 Moving from Indifference to Justice
6 Moving from Conflict to Peacemaking
7 Moving from Legalism to Grace
8 Moving from Exclusion to Embrace
9 Moving from Expressive Individualism to Community
10 Moving from Frenetic Activity to Slow Discipleship
Epilogue Following Jesus: The Cost, the Call, and the Joy
Acknowledgments
Questions for Reflection and Discussion
Notes
Praise for Ten Movements of the Jesus Way
About the Author
Also by the Author
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