Page 72 - Principles for Discipling Others-Student textbook

One week has 168 hours. The best spiritual help they could hope for usually was 2-4 hours of church a
week. Omitting 56 hours for sleep, there is 108 hours a week which is surrounded by an almost totally
secular environment. And we are left to wonder why so many new Christians remain “babes in Christ”
most of their lives.

This may have come about because the “price tag” in terms of time, energy, and manpower to win a
person to Christ is so much less than that of providing the much-needed spiritual growth of those who
have come to know the Savior. (Compare the time, energy for the conception of a child versus helping
him/her grow into adulthood.)

Discipleship training is needed to teach new Christians, as “babes in Christ,” to grow quickly into faithful,
bold sons and daughters of the Savior who will accept the Lord’s challenge to “Go into all the world and
…make disciples…who can inspire them to win and train others to do likewise.” Hopefully, this course
will provide some teaching tools to help in this much needed task of “growing” disciples.

A suggested “track” for the mentor of a young Christian …. A basic follow-up “picture” for a
new believer:

At the BEGINNING….
1. PRAYER Invite several key people … friends, family, church leaders … to add the new Christian
to their prayer list. This should probably go “without saying,” being such a basic concept! This is
probably the most important essential for effective follow-up.
2. TRY TO FIND TIME ONCE A WEEK TO SHARE WITH THE NEW BELIEVER
You could perhaps meet for breakfast/coffee at a restaurant on Tuesday at 6am? Plan a date
and time to get together!
3. Plan for 2 hours if possible. (1 hr. in Bible study + 1 hr. in personal application of Bible study
topic- include applicable illustrations.) If 2 hrs. does not work, carve out whatever time will
work.
4. As quickly as possible, try to disciple a person so he/she can feed himself and sustain his own
spiritual life.
5. Become involved in personal evangelism with him if time and interest allows.

As in the nurture of a physical child, there will be up’s and down’s in the process. There will be times of
excitement and discouragement. There will be a time for growth cycles to rise, fall, and level-off. It has
taken most of us a long, long time to reach our present level of spiritual growth. It does not happen
overnight! Let the Holy Spirit do His job!

Here is a chart with a list of topics with which to begin and progress from week to week:

Week Topic Action
1 Lostness – Spiritual New Visit w/ new Christian every day
Birth Meet another Chr. w/in 24 hrs.
Some sports activity w/in 48 hrs.
Invite them to supper w/ key person w/in 3 or 4
days
2 The Wheel How to have a quiet time
3 Assurance of Salvation Guidance w/Bible reading program

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