our blogs
Many of the Soil and Roots podcast episodes are transcribed and provided here as blog entries. We invite you to journey with us into deep discipleship by starting with the first entry and moving ahead sequentially.
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The Need for Deep People
Richard Foster once remarked that the world does not primarily need more intelligent or gifted people. It needs deeper people. This article explores Dallas Willard’s insights on spiritual formation, the purpose of the church, and the five key elements necessary for deep discipleship and lasting transformation.
Uncovering the Hidden Ideas that Govern Us
Many Christians believe the right things intellectually while unknowingly operating from deeply rooted hidden ideas that shape their lives. In this episode, we explore Dallas Willard’s concept of “The Great Omission,” the divided heart, and why deep discipleship requires becoming spiritually awake to the assumptions driving us beneath the surface.
The Great Omission
Dallas Willard called it “The Great Omission” — the reality that modern Christianity talks often about discipleship while struggling to actually form disciples. This article explores the Five Key Elements of Spiritual Formation and why deep discipleship requires far more than information and church attendance alone.
The Disconnected Disciple
Modern Christianity often emphasizes instruction while neglecting the relational and experiential elements necessary for deep spiritual formation. This article explores why many believers feel disconnected despite strong biblical teaching, and how discipleship requires more than information alone.
The Wall
Many Christians eventually encounter “the Wall” — a season of doubt, suffering, confusion, or spiritual dryness that disrupts life as usual. Drawing from Dallas Willard and The Critical Journey, this article explores why pressing into the Wall may be essential for deep spiritual formation and authentic discipleship.
Pressing through the Wall
Dallas Willard’s “Great Omission” exposes a painful reality: many Christians are taught how to believe, serve, and participate, but not how to journey through suffering, doubt, and inner turmoil with Jesus. This article explores why “the Wall” may become one of the most transformative stages of deep discipleship.
I Think Therefore I’m Formed?
Many Christians know the right doctrines yet still feel anxious, disconnected, insecure, or spiritually stuck. This article explores Dallas Willard’s “Great Omission,” flawed assumptions about discipleship, and why genuine spiritual formation involves far more than instruction alone.
I Don’t Remember This in Sunday School
What if the deepest drivers of our spiritual lives are not merely beliefs we consciously hold, but hidden ideas quietly shaping our hearts beneath the surface? This article explores the concept of ideas, the difference between “Ideas in the Air” and “Ideas in the Soil,” and why deep discipleship requires learning to discern them.
You Say You Want a Revolution?
Jesus did more than teach moral truths. He confronted the hidden ideas governing human hearts and cultures. This article explores the concept of ideas, the “Idea Revolution” of Jesus, and how deep discipleship transforms identity, shame, power, and love from the inside out.
Mining the Heart
Discipleship is far more about the inner life than many Christians realize. This article explores Dallas Willard’s “Great Omission,” the hidden ideas shaping our hearts, and why suffering often becomes the catalyst for deep spiritual formation and authentic discipleship.
Shooting Ourselves in the Feet
Why do so many churches produce impressive attendance numbers yet struggle to form people who genuinely look like Jesus? This article explores hidden assumptions shaping modern Christianity, and the dangerous drift from deep discipleship toward institutional growth, celebrity leadership, transactional conversion, and information-based spirituality.
One of These Things Is Not Like The Other
“The Great Omission” is the reality that modern Christianity talks endlessly about discipleship while struggling to actually form people who live, love, and relate like Jesus. This article summarizes the journey so far and introduces three major problems quietly undermining deep spiritual formation today: the Discipleship Dilemma, the Formation Gap, and the Forgotten Kingdom.
The Discipleship Dilemma
Many Christians long to become more like Jesus yet avoid the inner exploration required for deep spiritual formation. The Discipleship Dilemma reveals why self-knowledge, emotional honesty, and understanding the hidden ideas beneath our beliefs are essential to genuine discipleship.
Blissful Ignorance?
Deep discipleship requires more than Bible knowledge and behavior management. Exploring our stories, wounds, desires, and relationships is essential to healing, transformation, and becoming more like Jesus.
What Lies Beneath
Deep discipleship requires more than information and Bible knowledge. True spiritual formation explores the hidden ideas, desires, habits, and heart patterns shaping our character and relationships.
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What in the World
is Deep Discipleship?
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