The Discipleship Path

Am I supposed to be growing in my faith?
What does it look like to grow?
How do I know if this is what the Christian life is supposed to be, or if I'm just following the "christian trend" of my times?

Scripture makes it clear that the gospel is not something we receive at a singular point in time. Rather, it’s a lifestyle of repentance and faith, a life of following Jesus, a life of growing in grace.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
2 Peter 1:5-9

Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Colossians 2:6-7

Vision + Mature Christians = Kingdom Transformation. If you've been here during our vision casting series last year, or even just have read through our Vision and Values page on our website, you should have some level of imagining what kind of church we want to be. However, we need to ask, “if that’s the kind of church we want to be, then, what kind of people do we want to become?" In other words, we’ve covered a lot about what King’s Cross Church as an organization is committed to and expects from our members. But in turn, how ought you expect to be shaped and formed into a mature Christian? How would we describe the way Jesus calls us to live, deeper into people saturated with God's love and wisdom evident and pouring out, through their lives?

The image above is what we call our Discipleship Path. It consists of 8 areas that encompass what it means for us to submit the whole of our lives to King Jesus.

Some Key Observations:

• This is really big. This not a yearly "theme," nor is this a "season" of where we want to focus. Rather, this is the core of the Christian life, simplified, but ever-unfolding. It's this fuzzy phrase we use, "following Jesus," brought into focus for us to gather around and agree and pursue together--this life that Christ calls us to grow deeper in... and by His grace, it will more or less encompass how we want to mature throughout our lives.
• These are areas we want to grow. They’re not a checklist to Christian maturity. Rather, a template for a lifestyle we want to go deeper in. (Think of a work out regime)
• The Holy Spirit may have us grow more in one area over another, in a certain period of our lives. It’s different for everyone.
• There’s no “correct” order. They are part of an organic whole.
• This is contextualized to mature Christians doing kingdom work particularly in the NYC/Queens context.

So... Where can I get started? 

Well, here's the thing: if you've been an active member of King's Cross Church--you hopefully have been growing in some of these ways already. We want to make following Jesus explicit, tangible and attainable for everyone of our church members. However, as we grow as a church, we want to use this as a lense for both us and you to see where we need to create spaces to develope, grow, and catalyze these areas of obedience and submission to the Lord. Meaning, it will unfold organically, but intentionally, as we have been growing. Again, we don't want to "program" christian growth--but we do need to be cognizant and intentional and clear about where we want to mature.

This will take place through are a mixture of mediums we want you to grow through in these areas. E.g. Community Group, sermons, classes, serving with our partners, etc. 

However, here are some ways you can begin considering how to grow more intentionally:

• Take a moment to look at the individual areas and consider which ones you feel you've grown in the past year in. Consider, are there areas where you may have never even considered a possibility for growth?
• Save the date for our Congregational Retreat this year: June 14-16th, where our theme will be kicking this off together as we explore our theme: Deeper, Together 
• Take a glance over the brief explanations of each of these explanations for aspect of depth, and begin to pray that God would grant King's Cross a hunger to grow.

A Brief Explanation of the 8 Aspects of Christian Depth

• Witness 
  • Public faith and evangelism. Growing in a missional life that compellingly displays life with Christ and shares the gospel story with unbelievers.
• Faith & Work
  • A transformed way we work and see work. A life marked by a deep valuing of how our work plays out in God’s purposes and redemptive plans in the world.
• Relationships 
  • A transformed view and application of how we are to engage in friendship, family, marriage, and sex. A life that is able to joyfully and wisely know how to pursue the other’s good.
• Money
  • Understanding and wisely stewarding the role and purpose of money, wealth, finances and power.
• Spiritual Disciplines (Prayer & Scripture)
  • Cultivating a life in prayer and in the Scriptures so as to be competent in renewing the inward-self in fellowship with God.
• Worship 
  • Growing in delight of fellowship with God and with one another; a deeper understanding and enjoyment of the means of grace and participation in the gathering of God’s people to (Sunday) worship.
• Mercy & Justice
  • A deepened heart of compassion and wisdom in how to pursue right relationships with others in the context of a broken world, lives and systems.
• Church Life
  • Growing in a servant-like heart through engaging in and building up others lives in ministry and service.
     

For Him,

R