The Formation Way at Nu Church
At Nu Church, spiritual formation is the lifelong process of being shaped into the image of Christ for the sake of others. We describe this journey in three interconnected and simultaneous movements:
Know Christ — What we believe (the Good News, the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and the Church). This is the foundation. Knowing Christ is the starting point and the center around which all formation happens. What we believe about who He is and what He has done is the starting point for true biblical formation.
Experience Christ — How we are formed. This is the personal progression of Curiosity → Imagination → Informed Belief → Transformation through Community. The ongoing process of wrestling with what we have come to know about Jesus until those beliefs begin to shape how we actually live.
Encounter Christ — Where we are formed. In the communal spaces of the church (Sunday Gatherings, Courses, Communities, and Circles) we live out what we believe as true representatives of Jesus, partnering with Him in making all things new.
How Transformation Through Community Fits in Formation
Transformation Through Community is where those earlier movements become a lived reality. It is the place where belief is tested in relationship, where confession brings healing, encouragement is given and received, and where shared life begins to form us into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
Without this stage, our informed belief can make us prideful and treat spiritual growth as a personal achievement rather than a gift of grace. The truth is, we are shaped into Christ’s image together, as a multi-ethnic, multi-generational family, for the sake of the world God is making new. The goal has never been private spiritual self-improvement. The goal is that we would look more like Jesus so His life can be reflected through us for the sake of others.
This is the heart of discipleship: the intentional, communal process of cooperating with the Holy Spirit to put on the character of Christ (Colossians 3:12–17) so that we can better embody His love, truth, and healing presence to a broken world.
Why This Matters
Many people grow curious, and some will even begin to imagine a different kind of life as they think about Jesus and participate in His church. The truth is, though, fewer people will move into coherent, informed belief; and even fewer will allow that belief to be lived out in the vulnerable, ordinary, shared life of the church.
We live in a culture that prizes independence and privacy. Even among those who follow Jesus, it is easy to treat community as optional—something we add when life is going well, or avoid when life is hard. But the New Testament never presents the Christian life as a solo journey. From the earliest days, following Jesus meant belonging to a people.
Real transformation happens in relationship. It happens through honesty and confession. It happens through encouragement when we are weary and correction when we are blind. It happens through shared suffering and shared joy. It happens when we show up week after week, not because we have it all together, but because we know we cannot become like Jesus alone.
Where to Start
Discipleship isn’t linear. It is a path that circles the person of Jesus, and each loop brings us closer, wider, and higher—like ascending a mountain path that circles the peak. If the goal of the Christian life is to be formed into His image, we want to grow in the company of others who are seeking the same thing.
Wherever you are, begin by asking whether what you have come to believe is being lived out with other people. Bring that question to God, to Scripture, and to the communal spaces of Nu Church—especially a Community or a Circle.
You do not need to have everything figured out before you belong. Belonging is part of how we are formed.
Prompts
As you engage Scripture, teaching, or conversation, ask:
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Where am I still trying to follow Jesus alone?
What truth have I come to believe that still needs to be lived out with others?
Is there a place of honesty, confession, or encouragement I have been avoiding?
Am I in a Nu Community where shared life is happening?
Am I in a Nu Circle where vulnerable accountability and mission are being practiced?
How might my life look different if I allowed the church to be the primary place of my formation?
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Bring those questions to God, to Scripture, and to someone in community.
Walking With Others
If you are helping someone else in their formation, Transformation Through Community is often the place of greatest resistance. Many people are willing to learn, even willing to imagine, but hesitant to open their lives to others. Do not force belonging. Create space where it is safe to be known. Model the kind of honesty and mutual care you hope they will eventually practice. Point them toward Jesus and toward the people of God who can help them live what they are coming to believe. The goal is not to fill a group, but to form people whose lives begin to look like His—together, for the sake of others.
Where To Go Next
Transformation Through Community is not the end of the journey. Our prayer is that as we continue to participate in the Encounter Christ movement—Sunday Gatherings, Courses, Communities, and Circles—so that we’ll be shaped together and will return again and again to curiosity with greater trust, to imagination with deeper hope, and to informed belief with clearer sight.
These are not programs. They are the places where what we believe is lived, tested, and embodied in the presence of others so that we can know and look more like him.
Practice
Jesus is the center and source of life. He is both the One we are being formed into and the example of the life God intended for humanity.
Transformation Through Community is not about finding the perfect group or the ideal set of friends. It is about allowing the people of God to become the primary place where what we believe about Jesus is lived out. Knowledge governed by love builds up. Shared life centered on Christ forms us. In Him we are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
You do not have to arrive fully formed before you enter community. In fact, you cannot. Transformation is what happens in the shared life of the church, not before it. Get plugged in today:
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
From the very beginning, the people of Jesus devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer (Acts 2:42). Knowledge was never meant to be a private project. It was always meant to be pursued together in community where it is safe to not know yet, to be corrected, and where the shared life of the church becomes the very place in which informed belief can grow.
At this point, the story of Jesus has begun to reshape how we see God, ourselves, and the world He is making new.
But the Bible reminds us that knowledge alone isn't the point.
Our absolute conviction is that the Church is not an optional support system for individual spiritual growth. It is God’s plan for transformation. From the beginning, the people of Jesus devoted themselves not only to the apostles’ teaching but to fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42). Having an informed belief is not about winning arguments; it is meant to be embodied in a people.