You have just been put in charge of discipling a group of newly saved young people. They have no church upbringing and very limited Bible knowledge.
What are first 5 things you would do to establish them in their new found faith?
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1. Re-clarify the Gospel to them.
2. Distinguish different aspects of salvation.
3. Provide a summary of the Bible's narrative.
4. Stress the importance of Bbile study and prayer.
5. Advice them of the importance of Christian fellowship.
Excellent points Matthew!
1. Clarify the Gospel, in that by their believing in the Christ they have everlasting life and will not ever,ever,ever perish. This will be done by studying the Gospel of John.
2. Read and help them understand Colossians 2:8, encourage them to stay away from ALL other Christian teachers & books until they are established in their faith in Christ.
3. Read and help them understand Romans 5,6,7,8,& 12
4. Encourage them to fellowship with other believers and prayer.
5. Help them understand that they have an enemy, the devil, and teach them some basics in how he deceives believers so they are not ignorant of his tactics.
Kris, welcome here. I appreciate your input into this question.
May I add a bit to your first point, we should not be confirming new believers by telling them they are saved. This is wholly the work of the Holy Spirit by witnessing with our spirits that we are indeed children of God. We must however give them the appropriate verses to show them that salvation is an eternal gift which can never be taken away.
Again, thanks for your comments and feel free to stop by anytime.
God bless,
Jim
Like everyone else, the first emphasis I believe would be on articulating the gospel. I would use smallpox as an example; A man is not immunized by believing that the small pox vaccine can immunize him. He is immunized when in the strength of that belief he receives the vaccine for himself; It is important that a believer understands that he is not saved because he prayed a prayer, but is saved by Jesus Christ personally through faith in Jesus Christ to do just that. That is, I would make sure he or she understood that the gospel is personal, that it is the job of the Holy Spirit to witness to the believer that he or she is saved.
I suppose I would give my own testimony as well; in particular I would stress how God's Spirit came into me and witnessed to me that I am His child;
I would explain to them that scripture is true - all of it; and that if they reject any of it, they may as well reject it all (since if they pick and choose what they will believe out of scripture they are really setting themseves above scripture as an authority about what is true).
I would teach them how a relationship with God works; the purpose of prayer, scripture, and how to "be" a Christian.
Lastly, I would stress the importance of a living, obedient faith. We are saved for a purpose, and that purpose isn't to simply attend "church" on Sunday. Christ came to deliver us from our sin and establish His rule in our lives so that we might have life more abundantly.
I suppose I would also mention that if Christ is in them, they now have three new enemies - the world, the flesh, and the devil; and that all three of these will now conspire daily to thwart the life of Christ that is supposed to be lived out in the believer. I would explain the "armor of God" and what they must do in order to stand.
I wouldn't stand on the idea that these are the "top" five; rather these are five things I would do. If I gave it much thought, I might add another, or change it up or what have you, but you get the idea.
Dan
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Thanks Daniel, those are very good thoughts and suggestions. Of course there isn't a set top five, but whatever first comes to mind is probably what we would use when actually discipling new believers.
God bless,
Jim
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