09. Helping a New Believer Grow

Posted by Alex Georgiev on September 13, 2018

What and Why

We love those amazing times when someone places his/her faith in Christ. We celebrate the moment, thank the Lord and tell our friends about God’s great work. God created a new life which, in its early stages, is vulnerable and fragile. New believers need encouragement and help at this critical moment. It is possible that during these early days of their new faith that we are the only believers they know. This means that we have a precious responsibility to help them.

How often does it feel like just after we introduce someone to Christ the demands of exams, the activities of the movement, and the needs of our friends press in on us? Weeks can pass before we realize that we aren’t doing such a good job staying in touch with the person who came to Christ. Perhaps this is part of the spiritual battle that we are in. In such a battle, we can ask the Lord to strengthen us and help us remain focused.

Even while we maintain our focus, reconnecting with new believers may be challenging. Everyone is on a journey, different people moving at different paces. You might find yourself reaching out to a new believer who is not actively pursuing spiritual things. Don’t be discouraged. Old patterns continue to affect people. New patterns take time to develop. You can help those who came to Christ exchange the old for the new.

We turn our attention again to the task of helping someone become rooted and grounded in their faith. This process will require intentionality, love and wisdom.

Learning from the Word

Read 1 Corinthians 3:5-9

Click for the text

What two tasks are found in the text? (vs. 6)

Watering the seed can be challenging:

C. S. Lewis in his book The Screwtape Letters, looks at spiritual topics from a unique perspective. His creative writing enables us to peek into the fictitious discussions of two of our enemies (demons), who are trying to suppress God’s growing Kingdom.

In one such discussion, the veteran enemy, uncle Screwtape, tells his apprentice that man should not be permitted to ponder spiritual things too deeply. Deep thinking leads to commitment and a growing faith. Thus, the strategy of the enemy is to keep believers busy and distracted so that they will not focus on their spiritual growth.

C.S. Lewis describes a common problem that affects our efforts to disciple. Helping someone grow often feels like a battle. Excuses of having no time, and being too busy are frequent. Perhaps we ourselves once made such excuses.

While the task of “watering” the seed might appear to be easy, it is not. It is part of labor of hard-working farmers. Fulfilling this task requires diligence and perseverance. It also requires prayer. Know that the person you are trying to help is in a spiritual battle. Pray for him, pray for her. Pursue them. Even after a sheep is found, it continues to need shepherding.

Connecting to the Truth

Case Study:

Emil was confused. He had recently led his roommate, Tomas, to Christ. They had a great conversation which obvious touched Tomas’ heart. After that conversation, Emil told Tomas that he was available to answer any question that Tomas might have. But in the last three weeks, Tomas hadn’t raised any questions. While Emil and Tomas saw each other every day their discussion about the Lord didn’t continue.

Around the same time, Emil’s friend Corina had led Olga to Christ through a random survey. Olga, who was a stranger, seemed eager to grow. Corina and Olga regularly met to study follow-up lessons. Emil felt like a failure in his work with Tomas. You are going to meet with Emil later today. He wants to talk to you about why Corina is doing so well in follow-up and he, in his words, “is doing so poorly.”

1. Take the initiative

As the leader of a follow-up meeting, you need to initiate getting together for further growth.

2. Connection matters

People seek friendship and respond to caring, personal interaction. A good follow-up meeting involves more than working through a lesson. Take time to connect with the student, getting to know him/her.

Express interest and care outside of formal meetings. It is a good idea to become Facebook friends and to ‘like’ various posts the student makes. You might find that following them on Twitter or Instagram is effective.

3. Length of time matters

Keep the meeting fairly short. While you might enjoy a two-hour discussion, the new believer might consider it too long. If the meetings are long they might be less interested in getting together again.

4. Make the content relevant to the person with whom you are meeting.

5. As the leader of the meeting, you need to know the material so well that you can focus on the person you are with.

6. Pray, asking God to help you see and then pursue meaningful connection points with this person.

7. Set up your next meeting while you are still together.

Preparing to guide someone through the next interactive study

♦ Read through the 2nd follow-up lesson (you fill find it in the VOLT directory). Look up the passages and observe how the text answers every question. You can also follow this link to the lesson - From Unworthiness to Forgiveness

♦ Work through the lesson with a practice partner.

♦ Find someone who is willing to help you learn. (You might even work with someone via Skype or another long-distant format.)

♦ Divide the lesson into several different sections. In the first section, you “lead,” walking your partner through the material. Switch roles in the next section, and let your partner walk you through the material.

♦ After the practice session, evaluate how it went. Ask for feedback that might help you improve your skills.