04/20/2026
John Mark Comer’s influence has been popping up in Nancy Walecki’s life all year: “One friend had started observing a 24-hour, phone-free Sabbath. My roommates began fasting several times a month,” she writes. https://theatln.tc/ydRxruMn
Comer is one of the most famous pastors in America right now; his books have sold more than 1 million copies. He is “Protestant, nondenominational, and roughly in the evangelical sphere, but his work is mostly about how technology—what he calls ‘the machine’—is spiritually deforming people,” Walecki writes.
In his 2019 best seller, “Comer advances the theory that the great enemy of spiritual life is hurry,” Walecki writes. “By this he means not simply busyness: Hurry is a gnawing sense that there is always more to do; a life spent hurtling oneself through each day; a schedule that makes little room for God,” she continues. “Comer calls the modern world ‘a virtual conspiracy against the interior life,’ and urges readers to reclaim their focus from the algorithm and shift it toward God.”
In his most recent book, “Comer encourages readers to incorporate nine of Jesus’s habits into their lives: scripture reading, service, keeping the Sabbath, solitude, prayer, fasting, community, witness, and generosity,” Walecki writes.
“Comer can seem more like a wellness personality, such as Andrew Huberman, than a pastor,” Walecki writes. “Like Huberman, Comer offers a concrete regimen that’s attractive to people who feel unmoored in contemporary society. Comer’s skeptics, when remarking on his rapid ascent, point to these similarities and wonder if what he’s offering is simply baptized wellness, a pop spirituality tailored to the tastes and frustrations of affluent young people. But sitting among his followers, I wondered: Could Comer’s practices actually bring them closer to God?”
At the link, read more about Walecki’s conversations with Comer, and about her own experimentation with his advice.
📸: Thalía Gochez for The Atlantic
