Formed: the discipleship wheel

A sermon series exploring a balanced spiritual formation across the three areas of life in New York.

As a community, we aim to embody three core relationships: love God, love one another, and love the city.

What is spiritual formation?

Spiritual formation—the process of becoming increasingly devoted disciples of Jesus Christ—is what we believe to be the core task of the church. Because we are always being formed into one kind of person or another through everything we do, it is essential for those who desire to become like Jesus to be intentional about how we might change and grow.

At Redeemer Downtown, we seek to create a culture where people respond to the grace shown to us in Jesus by taking ownership and responsibility for their growth. To do this, we engage in nine practices which help us to see Jesus more clearly. For it is through gazing on him that we are changed from glory unto glory, as explained in 2 Corinthians 3:18.

Our core relationships inform the practices we embrace.

Our daily practices—what we choose to prioritize and do regularly—are the things that form us. Incorporating the nine practices below can help us become people who love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and who love our neighbors as ourselves, as the Lord calls us to do in Matthew 22:36-40.

OUR THREE CORE RELATIONSHIPS:

Nine Practices

  • (7/9) Hospitality & Witness
    is the practice of regularly sharing our lives, resources and time with others, especially those who are different from us, so that they might experience the love and welcome of Christ.
  • (8/9) Compassion & Justice
    is the practicing of walking humbly with God and doing justice out of compassionate love.
  • (9/9) Work & Rest
    is the practice of joining God in the renewal of all things by working with integrity for the common good.
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Work & Rest

Ben shares about how he sees rest as a gift from God and explains how he pursues it amidst the demands of his work.

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Compassion & Justice

Aimee shares about how she sees the abundance of suffering in NYC as individual opportunities to practice the ways of Jesus.

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Hospitality & Witness

Ashley & Paul share about how being intentionally friendly and warm can plant seeds for the gospel.

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Church Membership

Andrew shares reflections on how church membership is an outward expression on his faith.

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Spiritual Friendships

Haley reflects on how consistent time in spiritual friendships, sharing and bearing with one another, is both filled with richness and is formative.

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Community Group

David shares reflections from doing life with a community group that's been together for more than 15 years.

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Generosity

Mylo shares about how stepping out in faith and generosity has helped him to grow in his faith and be less fearful.

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Personal Devotions

Ned shares about how he prioritizes reading Scripture before bedtime and how he plans his mornings around Scripture memorization and prayer.

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Corporate Worship

Sarah shares about how her family prioritizes Corporate Worship at Redeemer Downtown and how doing so has helped form and encouraged them.



Relevant articles by Redeemer Pastors

Spiritual Formation by Scripture Memorization

By Rev. Pete Nicholas

Scripture memorization is the most important spiritual discipline to pair with daily Scripture reading and prayer.

Spiritual Formation I: The Nourishment For Our Formation

By Rev. Pete Nicholas
Just as our physical health is greatly impacted by what we eat, our spiritual health is greatly impacted by what we feed our souls.

Rome Is Not Our Home: Live Counterculturally During Election Season

By Rev. Pete Nicholas
Much of the political left and right are shaped by a way of seeing the world predicated on power, but Christ's call for us to ‘love one another’ should lead us to a different approach.

Politics and Elections: How Nietzsche Became Our Teacher

By Pete Nicholas

Scripture memorization is the most important spiritual discipline to pair with daily Scripture reading and prayer.

Promoting the Practice of Church Membership

By Rev. Jeff White
Is church membership biblical? Why does it make a difference? Having benefited from the steps of church membership, you will likely exclaim, “What took me so long?”

Spiritual Formation II: The Goal of Our Formation

By Rev. Pete Nicholas
Is Christian formation distinct, or does it share the same goals as secular psychology, sociology, and other religions, merely seeking to arrive by different ‘Christian’ means?

Spiritual Formation III: The Way Of Our Formation

By Rev. Pete Nicholas
As with any journey, having some sense of what to expect, and what the highs and lows of 'the way' we are called to walk as followers of Christ, is important.

LISTEN TO SERMON SERIES

We hope these sermons equip you to reflect on your own formation.

Listen to "Formed" Sermons

Ways to engage with our sermon series

Evaluate your own formation.

Our spiritual formation model and the accompanying worksheet provides a pathway and diagnostic tool to help us grow to become like Jesus in his character and purposes.

Memorize scripture.

Scripture kindles a flame in our hearts of love for God and gives us the spiritual fuel to not grow weary of doing good to others while resisting our natural selfishness.

Attend one of our events.

Through Habit Workshops, Praise & Prayer nights, meals with church officers, and Bible studies, we will endeavor to support each other in our spiritual formation.