I once watched a television program about a particular bird that was raised in captivity and never knew its mother. The scientists who nurtured the animal did all they could to imitate the mother bird, even using bird puppets to feed it. When the time came to reintroduce the creature to the wild, many artificial means were required for the transition. The bird required a proper model to follow regarding survival and could not have successfully returned to the wild without the scientists’ great efforts and interventions.
Similarly, church planters have the responsibility of nurturing new believers and modeling for them lives of obedient Christians. They are also responsible for instilling survival techniques in the form of healthy spiritual disciplines within the new believers and churches as well.
Charles Brock, president of Church Growth International, served for over twenty years as a church planter in the Philippines. While working with new believers, he developed a discipleship training tool entitled I Have Been Born Again, What Next? The value of this resource is that it is studied in community with other new believers and leads them on a journey of developing spiritual disciplines in their lives. At the conclusion of this study, the church planters challenge group members to ask themselves if they believe the Spirit is leading them to become a church in their community. The topics addressed in this simple resource include:
- A new nature
- A new power: the Holy Spirit
- A new guide: the Bible
- A new privilege: prayer
- A new hope
- New relationships
- A new understanding of baptism
- A new family: the Church
- A new reminder: the Lord’s Supper
- A new opportunity: tithing
- New responsibilities
In addition to these topics, I would include teachings related to spiritual warfare and fasting. The discipleship process is a lifelong journey that begins with spiritual birth. There are many things that can be taught to new believers, and missionaries will need to make adjustments according to their contexts and convictions. But, for now, I think this list is a good place to begin.
Questions to Consider
1) What is your strategy for teaching healthy disciplines to new believers? If you do not have such a plan, why not?
2) After looking over the suggested topics mentioned in this post, are there others you believe need to be taught to new believers as soon as possible?
3) Can you describe your process of leading a group of new believers from their conversions to challenging them with the question, “Is the Spirit leading you as a group to be a local expression of the Body of Christ (i.e., church) in this city (town, village, etc.)?” If you do not have such a strategy, why not?
