The somewhat lost art of discipling new Christians

All Christians and churches are keen to see people become Christians. We plan and pray for evangelism. We get trained in basic gospel outlines to help people understand who Jesus is and why they should care. And we celebrate when someone professes faith or is baptised.

That’s all great! Yet let’s think about the next step. Imagine that you now have a new baby Christian in your church. They are glad to be in church, they are excited about Jesus, and they cannot get enough of the Bible. With many churches, once someone is ‘over the line’, they are just in the general church population. That person is saved, great, now let’s look for someone else.

Baby Christians, like baby people, have a lot they need to learn. We intentionally teach babies the important things they need to know, while they naturally pick up lots of other things as they grow. I am convinced that we can do a lot more to help new believers to understand God and the Bible well to set them up with a good foundation for growth.

There is good Biblical precedent for this. In Acts 2, three thousand people became Christians in one day. This was in response to hearing one sermon which explained from the Old Testament that Jesus was the Christ. They were all Jewish believers, so they knew a lot from what we would call the Old Testament. Yet if you were to interview them about what their new faith means for their work, their attitude to non-Jewish Christians, or to church, they would struggle to answer those questions. They simply don’t know yet. There would have been a lot that they did not know. But they immediately started meeting daily in smaller groups in houses, being devoted to learning more and living in community. In that context, they would have learnt a lot of what it practically meant to be a Christian while also deepening in their understanding of God and His character and work.

Historically, new Christians have often been intentionally instructed individually or in smaller groups. This was done over several years prior to baptism in the first few centuries. I have seen some churches where they do this prior to church membership. There was a good reason for taking this kind of time. Baby Christians are vulnerable to false teaching; we see that in Galatians and Ephesians 4 as well as seeing it in new believers we know personally. It is critical to help them as best we can in this critical time in their lives.

There is no substitute for a church with good preaching and teaching. Smaller groups with Christians of all maturity levels will definitely help as well. But let me put forward another possibility: an intentional discipleship ministry run either one to one or in small groups.

We have done this kind of thing in the church I serve because many of the new Christians we see have limited English. In larger groups, it can be difficult to know exactly how much they understand. And even if the language was not a barrier, so much that is talked about in groups and in sermons is new to them. It helps a great deal if you have a framework understanding of the Bible and the core issues of the faith.

What do you think new Christians should know? They already know Jesus is their Lord and Saviour, but they could benefit from some basic theology beyond that. It would be good to know about God and church and the Bible. And when it comes to the Bible, some sort of Bible overview to show how the Bible fits together as one big storyline will be a massive help. I wish someone had shown this to me when I was much younger! It also helps to have opportunities for questions on all kinds of topics. They might want to know about money, or a Christian view of love and sex, or why we have the Lord’s Supper, or all kinds of things you take for granted. They should be encouraged in service and in evangelism. And finally, it would help if someone could help them to read and understand the Bible for themselves. You know, basic tools like looking at the context, seeing what’s there, and applying what you read to your own life.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to do this. There is good material out there. Our church has used Just for Starters from Matthias Media, Christianity Explored and Discipleship Explored, and we have developed our own Bible overview material.

Consider the young Christians in your church. Perhaps an older believer can adopt a younger one to help with their important basic Christian education? Or perhaps a group would work best in your context? We should do all we can to help enthusiastic new Christians to have a strong foundation. It will protect them from false teaching and give them tools to serve and also reach out to their friends.