What is the difference between doing what Jesus did and being like Jesus?

In this Greenhouse episode, Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 114, the launch of Season 6: The Object of Our Formation. Season 6 explores who Jesus really is and what qualities we should expect to develop as we become more like Him.

The conversation begins by revisiting the Soil & Roots journey so far: the Great Omission, the Three Primary Problems, deep discipleship, hidden ideas, the Formation Gap, the Forgotten Kingdom, and the Discipleship Dilemma. But instead of staying focused on the problems, this season turns toward the ultimate answer: Jesus Himself.

Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc wrestle with two core questions for the season. First, what is the difference between being like Jesus and simply doing Christian things? Spiritual formation is not merely a checklist of actions, habits, service projects, or sermon applications. The goal is not just to imitate Jesus externally, but to be formed from the inside out so that we increasingly think, relate, love, and respond like Him.

Second, how complex is Jesus, the object of our formation? Jesus is not predictable, flat, or formulaic. He is gentle and confrontational, compassionate and disruptive, emotionally secure and deeply human. He relates to people with stunning particularity and wisdom.

This episode invites us into a deeper vision of Christlikeness: becoming more fully ourselves in Him, more secure in the Father’s love, and more able to love others with the wisdom and freedom of Jesus.

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What does it actually mean to become like Jesus?

In Episode 114, Brian opens Season 6 of Soil & Roots: The Object of Our Formation. After five seasons exploring the Great Omission, the Three Primary Problems, Heartview, Greenhouses, and the need for deep discipleship, this episode turns toward the central question underneath it all: Who is Jesus, really, and what kind of people should we expect to become as we are formed into His image?

The episode begins with a 30,000-foot recap of the Soil & Roots journey so far. Brian revisits the Great Omission, the Forgotten Kingdom, the Discipleship Dilemma, the Formation Gap, the Five Key Elements, hidden ideas and desires, and the Heartview process. Each of these frameworks points toward the same goal: becoming people who think, act, relate, and love more like Jesus from the inside out.

But Season 6 also complicates the question. Becoming like Jesus does not simply mean asking, “What would Jesus do?” and then imitating His actions. Jesus is not flat, predictable, or one-dimensional. He is gentle and provocative, compassionate and confrontational, patient and disruptive, emotionally secure and deeply moved. He reveals Himself differently to different people, and He relates with perfect wisdom to the heart in front of Him.

This episode launches a season-long exploration of Christlikeness, spiritual formation, and the surprising, beautiful, unsettling person of Jesus — the One into whose image we are being formed.

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What does a true spiritual formation community look like?

In this Greenhouse episode, Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 112, “The Desperate Need for Deep Communities.” That bonus episode asked whether many modern Christian institutions are structured to form people of depth, or whether deep discipleship requires smaller, more vulnerable, more intimate communities.

Episode 113 presses into the practical questions. What do we mean by “deep”? What do we mean by “community”? How can we tell whether a group is actually forming people into the image of Jesus, rather than simply sharing information, attending events, or creating a religious social club?

The conversation explores the Soil & Roots Greenhouse model, the five key elements of formation, the difference between knowledge and knowing, the need for vulnerability and trust, and the fruit that can emerge when a small group of people commits to being known over time. Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc also discuss why many people long for this kind of community but struggle to pursue it: church structures, fear of change, resistance to vulnerability, confusion about discipleship, and uncertainty about where to begin.

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What kind of community forms deep people?

In this Season 5 bonus episode, Brian continues the reflection from Episodes 110 and 111 by exploring the desperate need for deep communities. If a deep disciple is someone increasingly awake and attuned to God, self, others, creation, and culture, then the next question is obvious: what kind of community can actually form that kind of person?

Brian argues that deep Christian community requires more than sermons, Bible studies, programs, weekend services, or casual small groups. Those things may have value, but they do not automatically create the vulnerability, honesty, safety, time, intimacy, and shared life necessary for genuine spiritual formation.

This episode returns to the Great Omission, the Formation Gap, the Critical Journey, the “nones” and “dones,” and the Soil & Roots Greenhouse model. Brian asks whether many modern Christian institutions are structured to produce deep people, or whether their size, pace, power dynamics, and dependence on professional Christians can sometimes work against the very formation they hope to encourage.

The episode also explores why the church may need to grow smaller rather than larger if it wants to recover New Testament discipleship. Deep communities are not built around celebrity teachers or institutional growth. They are formed by people willing to know and be known, listen deeply, suffer together, tell the truth, practice the five key elements, and experience Jesus in one another.

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What makes a person spiritually deep?

In this Greenhouse episode, Brian and Handsome Kyle continue the conversation from Episode 110, “The Desperate Need for Deep People.” That bonus episode defined a deep person as someone increasingly awake and attuned to God, self, others, creation, and culture. Episode 111 presses further into what that actually means.

Brian and Handsome Kyle explore why spiritual depth is not the same as theological knowledge, religious activity, church involvement, or having impressive answers. A deep person is someone who listens beneath the surface — to the heart of God, to their own heart, to the hearts of others, and to the world God has made.

The conversation also returns to one of the most neglected themes in modern discipleship: self-knowledge. Drawing from the long Christian tradition, Brian argues that knowing God and knowing ourselves are deeply connected. We cannot love others well if we refuse to know our own stories, wounds, desires, assumptions, fears, and patterns.

Brian and Handsome Kyle also discuss suffering as a common doorway into depth, the risk of authentic love, why Jesus relates to each person with particularity, and how creation and culture belong inside deep discipleship. This is a Greenhouse conversation about becoming people who are less guarded, more awake, more honest, and more able to love like Jesus.

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What is deep discipleship, and why does the world desperately need deep people?

In this Season 5 bonus episode, Brian steps back from the Conversations series to review the Soil & Roots journey so far. Drawing from Dallas Willard’s language of the Great Omission and Richard Foster’s call for “deep people,” this episode returns to the central question behind Soil & Roots: how do people become more like Jesus from the inside out?

Brian reviews the Great Omission, the three primary problems explored in Seasons 2–4, and the Soil & Roots framework of story, community, and purpose. The Discipleship Dilemma reminds us that God’s story and our own stories matter. The Formation Gap reminds us that hearts are formed through time, habit, community, intimacy, and instruction. The Forgotten Kingdom reminds us that Jesus’ purpose is not merely private salvation, but the increasing arrival of His Kingdom into every corner of human existence.

The episode then asks what a deep person actually is. A deep person is not necessarily the most theologically informed, most charismatic, most active, or most religiously busy person in the room. A deep person is someone increasingly awake and attuned to God, self, others, creation, and culture.

This is a short but important overview of deep discipleship, heart listening, hidden ideas and desires, self-knowledge, vulnerability, creation care, cultural discernment, and the kind of people the world desperately needs.

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Why do our views of the end times matter for discipleship?

In this Greenhouse episode, Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 108 with Dr. Darrell Bock on the kingdom of God, Progressive Dispensationalism, Israel, cultural engagement, and Christian mission.

The conversation asks why end-times views are not merely abstract theology or speculative debate. How we understand the future shapes how we live today. If the mission of Jesus is only a rescue operation from a doomed world, we may relate to culture, creation, justice, institutions, and our neighbors in one way. If the Kingdom is already breaking into the world through Jesus and His people, we may live with a very different sense of purpose.

Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc explore the difference between “splitter” and “joiner” approaches to Scripture, how Christians think about Israel and the church, why some followers of Jesus hold to a rapture and tribulation while others do not, and how these views shape our understanding of the cross, resurrection, new creation, and the Kingdom of God.

They also reflect on Dr. Bock’s tone: gracious, curious, bridge-building, and willing to hold conviction without hostility. Deep discipleship requires more than being right. It requires learning how to wrestle well, listen carefully, love our neighbor, and represent the Kingdom regardless of how history unfolds.

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What does the kingdom of God have to do with the end times?

In Episode 108, Brian talks with Dr. Darrell Bock, Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and Executive Director of Cultural Engagement, about the kingdom of God, Israel, eschatology, and Christian mission.

This conversation builds on Season 4, The Forgotten Kingdom, where Soil & Roots explored why the kingdom of God is central to the mission of Jesus and the life of deep discipleship. Brian and Dr. Bock discuss Progressive Dispensationalism, how it differs from more traditional dispensational views, and why our views of the end times are not merely side issues. They shape how we understand Jesus’ purpose, the church’s mission, Israel, the nations, creation, culture, and our daily lives.

Dr. Bock offers a gracious and bridge-building perspective. He affirms a future for Israel, the importance of the church’s witness now, and the need for followers of Jesus to represent the kingdom regardless of how history unfolds. The church is called to be a “sneak preview” of what is coming: a reconciled people who show the world the way of peace, justice, love, and Shalom.

This episode explores dispensationalism, covenant theology, cultural engagement, the rapture, the millennium, the new creation, and why the tone of our witness matters. If we say the right thing in the wrong way, we are still wrong. The kingdom of God is not only something we await. It is something we are called to embody now.

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What does healing from church hurt actually require?

In this Greenhouse episode, Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 106 with Matt Davis. Matt’s story opened up a raw and necessary discussion about church hurt, pastoral burnout, ministry failure, institutional self-protection, and the people who are wounded when church systems value the institution more than the individual.

This follow-up conversation asks what comes next. How should we think about pastors? Have we turned the pastoral office into a professional class or a platform role instead of a shepherding role? Can people be deeply formed if they are part of a church where no one really knows them? And why do so many churches have beautiful on-ramps for new people but confusing, painful, or graceless off-ramps for people who are burned out, wounded, or leaving?

Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc also explore whether the modern sermon has been asked to carry more formative weight than it can bear. Instruction matters, but spiritual formation does not happen through instruction alone. People need time, habits, community, intimacy, and spaces where they can confess, wrestle, suffer, wait, and be known.

This episode is not an argument against the church. It is an honest conversation about the beautiful mess of the church and the hope that Jesus still meets people in the hole. Healing from church hurt often begins when someone is willing to climb down, sit with us in the dark, and walk with us toward restoration.

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What happens when church wounds the people it was meant to form?

In Episode 106, Brian talks with Matt Davis, founder of Pastoral Transitions and co-host of Life After Ministry. Matt shares his story of ministry failure, church hurt, pastoral burnout, and healing after leaving vocational ministry. Together, Brian and Matt explore the Formation Gap, megachurch systems, institutional self-protection, small communities, confession, identity, and how Jesus restores people in the beautiful mess.

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Substack: ⁠ https://soilandroots.substack.com/