Helping New Christ-Followers
Hopefully, you have new Christ-followers in your midst. Some of us will have more than others. By the very nature of our role, as youth workers, we should be seeing students come to faith in Christ, or getting serious about their faith for the first time. One of the most important things we can do is helping new Christ-followers to have the resources they need to lay a solid foundation for their faith.
Acts 2:42 says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching . . .” New believers need to know God more and better. They need to know God’s character. To understand the richness of what’s happened to them. The same can be said for all of us. There is a lifetime of learning about God in front of us. Helping students grow in their faith starts with some pretty foundational truths. And their lives will be richer for it if they learn these truths at the beginning of their walk with the Lord.
NEW: First Steps for New Christ-Followers, is a 4-week experience for new Christ-followers. It helps students get to know God and His nature through in-depth, interactive daily devotionals.
One of the needs we have to make sure we’re providing for our new and young believers is a community. The new believer who joins a group of his or her peers who are living lives as Christ-followers, finds living, breathing pictures of this new life he or she has been called to. This new life of devotion seems doable! It is, in essence, the group teaching the new believer “how” to believe.
I’m talking about spiritual disciplines, or spiritual habits, or the practices that lead us to God. Spiritual habits such as prayer, Bible reading, worship, fasting, service, and so on, are the pathways through which we engage with God. These must be taught and modeled to new Christ-followers. These habits will inform their faith for a lifetime.
NEW walks students through these foundational spiritual habits, as well as including an appendix in the back with more in-depth practices students can practice as they grow in their faith.
This is different than community. This is Christian friendship. Personal, real, friendships centered around Christ. Eugene Peterson wrote, “It is easier to find guides, someone to tell you what to do than someone to be with you in a discerning, prayerful companionship as you work it out yourself.” New believers need friends to walk with them as they put down the roots of their faith.
These are four needs I see in Scripture. Many of these needs are covered in NEW, our most popular resource.
New Christ-followers have at least four basic needs.
Helping new Christ-followers to know God more and better.
Acts 2:42 says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching . . .” New believers need to know God more and better. They need to know God’s character. To understand the richness of what’s happened to them. The same can be said for all of us. There is a lifetime of learning about God in front of us. Helping students grow in their faith starts with some pretty foundational truths. And their lives will be richer for it if they learn these truths at the beginning of their walk with the Lord.
NEW: First Steps for New Christ-Followers, is a 4-week experience for new Christ-followers. It helps students get to know God and His nature through in-depth, interactive daily devotionals.
Helping new Christ-followers to be with others Christ-followers doing what Christ-followers do.
One of the needs we have to make sure we’re providing for our new and young believers is a community. The new believer who joins a group of his or her peers who are living lives as Christ-followers, finds living, breathing pictures of this new life he or she has been called to. This new life of devotion seems doable! It is, in essence, the group teaching the new believer “how” to believe.
Helping new Christ-followers to be shown the pathways that lead to God.
I’m talking about spiritual disciplines, or spiritual habits, or the practices that lead us to God. Spiritual habits such as prayer, Bible reading, worship, fasting, service, and so on, are the pathways through which we engage with God. These must be taught and modeled to new Christ-followers. These habits will inform their faith for a lifetime.
NEW walks students through these foundational spiritual habits, as well as including an appendix in the back with more in-depth practices students can practice as they grow in their faith.
Helping new Christ-followers have real relationships with individuals who can walk through the beginning of their faith-life with them.
This is different than community. This is Christian friendship. Personal, real, friendships centered around Christ. Eugene Peterson wrote, “It is easier to find guides, someone to tell you what to do than someone to be with you in a discerning, prayerful companionship as you work it out yourself.” New believers need friends to walk with them as they put down the roots of their faith.
These are four needs I see in Scripture. Many of these needs are covered in NEW, our most popular resource.
If you'd like to sample NEW for yourself or for ordering information, simply CLICK HERE.
Leave a comment