We are formed in the disciplines.

The heart of our church is to see people fully alive, practicing the way of Jesus. This means we are always moving towards the full life offered to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. As we participate in the grace and life of God (2 Peter, Phil 2) we are striving towards our souls’ healing and lives of Holiness like Jesus. Therefore, we do the very practices that we see Jesus doing in the gospels and the practices that the Church has found to be useful for spiritual progress through its history.

In Acts 2, we see that the early Christians prayed and worshiped regularly. We know they fasted, gathered together, and ate together. In the pastoral letters, we are told to confess our sins, pray without ceasing, study the Bible, give, serve the needs of the church and the poor. We see Jesus constantly getting away to pray. In Mark 1, Jesus goes into a desolate place to pray. Jesus prays all night before choosing the Apostles. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us the expectations for prayer, fasting, accountability, and obedience to His Word. For the last 2000 years, the Church has taken these practices and lived in them as the way of our formation.

Therefore, we believe that the Disciplines of our Faith are the ongoing place of spiritual encounter with God and the ongoing place of transformation. The key disciplines (from which many variations come) are:

Prayer & Fasting, Word, Worship, Community, Confession & Repentance, Guarding the mind, Good works (mercy), and Giving.

We want to be a community that does not take grace lightly, but knows that grace is God doing in my life what I could never do on my own. Grace, though, is a continual grace. Grace didn't stop at the cross. Grace is in all that we do. Grace does not oppose our effort in spiritual progress, but earning. Therefore, we seek to grow in Christ through the disciplines. We choose to walk the ascetic path of the Church, denying self and finding life in Jesus.

So, one thing you will notice at C3KW is that we talk about the disciplines often! We encourage them, pretty much every week in one way or another, and we hope and expect that our people build them into their lives richly.

Other Distinctives: Rooted in History, Empowered by the Spirit, Compelled by Love, Charismatic in Expression