swerve lab: new believers
Thanks to all of you who have continued to respond and help those who have submitted questions to the swerve lab. If you have a question that you would like for the readers of this blog to respond to, please send it to swerve@lifechurch.tv and put “Swerve Lab” in the subject line. You can read more about the process.
I think today’s question is a great one to get input from all of you that are involved in church leadership. Perhaps some of you who have recently become Christ followers might be able to share your experiences as well (both good and bad).
Paul Lewis, Pastor to New Believers at Palm Valley Church asks:
“I would love to hear how other churches connect new believers. Once someone makes a decision in one of their services, what happens next? What are the next steps?”
Visit 
I wish I had something cool I could say here about what we are doing, but I don’t and it burns me up.
We invest all our time getting folks in the building and amazing them with witty analogies and eye popping graphics.
They accept Him and then we send to “New Members Sunday School Class” UGH.
I say this as a church member, as I am currently between positions in any leadership role. I am spending a lot of time thinking and praying about this topic before I am called somewhere else to serve.
I want to say “Small Study Groups” but what, really, makes them any less of a place to herd these new Christians than
New Members SS Class?
1) We provide personal “neo-natal” care by providing copies of the NavPress booklet “Lessons on Assurance” for the person who was with the new believer when he “crossed the line of faith” and expect that the new believe will be personally discipled in these basics. During these 5 lessons we strongly encourage the new believer to begin a pattern of growth within community (small group).
2) We celebrate each decision for Christ with an announcement and affirmation by the body (cheering) then a white rose is placed in our “new life vase” that is a growing arrangement in a prominent place on our stage. (Red roses are placed for every human birth and white for every spiritual birth). We use silk flowers and allow the bouquet to grow throughout the year until we empty the vase each New Years Eve as we recount the Lord’s blessings throughout the year.
What about 1 on 1 discipleship? What if we actually devoted ourselves to passing on spiritual maturity and not just information, if we connected through relationships and not location, if we spent as much time “considering ways to spur one another to love and good deeds”-Hebrews as we do getting them to ‘make’ a life and death decision in 5 seconds, maybe there wouldn’t even be this question.
We do a couple things…
1) Beginnings Group - a place for new believers or those asking questions and seeking. It is a short term group that usually sticks together.
2) Starting Line Pack - a pack that walks through what the commitment is about, a congrats letter, some ideas for next steps, and a One Minute Bible for Starters (Saddleback).
3) Encourage them to keep coming. We often think that growth only happens in groups or one-on-one. Not true. Community, growth and much more can happen in a wide variety of environments.
4) Offer next steps…serving, a monthly event for connections, community groups, etc…but allowing space to be in process.
I would say these things work okay, but I would love to hear more ideas.
When they make the decision we have our Small Group leaders (called Life Group leaders) make the first initial contact. The goal right away is to have them connect into a small group and build some relationships. Second, we have a class called “Pathways to Freedom” which is a beginning discipleship class. Like a Christianity 101. We do this class 1 time a month so people can get into that class at any place during the month.
I’ve been working with new believers at my church for the past couple of years, and there have been different seasons for me to pass through as a leader in this ministry.
The three main things that I stress in this ministry are:
1) prayer for the NB, because there are serious spiritual battles that she faces consistently
2) follow-up by myself and the altar worker that prayed with the NB, initially (which helps us know how to better pray for the individual)
3) discipleship (of course)
The third has come through different avenues: one being a specific LifeGroup-just for them, another being one-on-one discipleship with me, as I take them through a 4-week curriculum written by a fellow minister that focuses on prayer, Bible study, small groups/fellowship and finances.
I’m now praying for ways to teach many believers in the church body to be disciplers. People tend to feel intimidated by that, thinking that only pastors/specific leaders should do it, but any maturing disciple can help to build disciples.
I recently learned of Life Transformation Groups, created by Neil Cole, and I’m praying for the time to introduce this intimate discipleship tool to some members of our church body. It’s an on-going way to be a disciple and to build disciples.
I think this is one of the churches biggest challenges today - moving people from “hands raised” to disciples of Christ.
National Community Church has a “Discipleship Atlas” that includes a “map” for new believers. In short, they lead new believers through a six-month introduction to discipleship, studying the Bible, financial stewardship, service, evangelism, and more.
Here is the link:
http://www.zonegathering.com/2007/02/01/finally/
It’s the best idea I have seen out there.
1.) We give them “new believer kits” which contains a bible, some worship cd’s from the band, and a 4 week DVD sermon series.
2.) We get them plugged into Lifegroups.
Since I asked, I should also share. New Believers are my primary ministry focus which is a huge blessing. We encourage new believers to come to the Fresh Start table where our coaches greet them, speak with them about what God is doing in their life, provide them with a Fresh Start Kit, and pray with them. This begins a relationship that lasts at least the 1st 90 days of their faith journey. Our coaches contact them periodically to answer questions, pray for them, and encourage them to take the Next Step.
For us this includes a Fresh Start Class - a one time one, hour class that covers their decision, assurance, and what happens next (especially a crash course in Bible study and prayer). We then encourage them to connect with a New Believer Growth Group (a 6 week Home Team for new believers that focuses more deeply on Bible study, prayer and other first step issues). We also encourage their baptism and their Next Step in connecting them to the larger church body and ongoing discipleship. I would more than gladly share our resources and solicit resources from others as well as prayer and encouragement for and from those focusing on this important ministry area.
Many good ideas. If I had anything to add it would be more of a stress that has been mentioned. I don’t think we can improve on the model that began with the Apostles and they implemented on the first days of the church. We’ve all seen how Jesus made disciples and if you boil it all down, it had to do with intimacy between the teacher and the students. He taught, taught, taught, and showed, showed, showed, how to live the call of the gospel.The connection they built with each other was everything and they couldn’t function without it; they felt lost without being connected.
The Apostles did the same with those God brought to them and the people responded, by devoting themselves to the Apostles teaching, worship, prayer, taking the supper together and constant fellowship, connection, connection, connection. Without building spiritual relationships of dependance with others, it is highly doubtful we will last long against the attacks of the evil one.
Sorry, I had entered both the church website and my blog address. My name leads to the church website. My blog is http://ptlewis.blogspot.com
I would love to hear from those serving new believers!
Paul - a question. The coaches that serve with you - all volunteers? Do they go through any sort of training prior to becoming a coach. How many new believers are typically assigned to a coach?
I like the concept you outlined above. How would rate its effectiveness?
As a newbie, ex backslider trying to be real this time…
not exactly new believer…
It’s hard to be new in a HUGE church. Even when the church is awesome. The problem I see is that who knows who is new? How does the church get to know itself??? That totally confuses me. I figure a lot of the people there don’t even know I’m new…the person next to me might be newer than me…but I’m new too.
I guess you can’t grow a church too fast? But then…how do you become church family if you never get to know anyone other than your small group?
Jay,
All of our coaches are volunteers and we have an incredible volunteer coordinator who is also a volunteer. She cares for our coaches beyond me, and does the scheduling and equipping. Feel free to contact me and I’ll gladly share our materials and processes. As far as effectiveness, we are just getting a handle on that. We average 5 new believers per week and right now 34% attend our Fresh Start Class and 50% of those continue into our New Believer Growth Group. Some still plug in without coming to the class or participating in the Group, but that is difficult to measure. We obviously aren’t satisfied with 34%, but it gives us a benchmark to work from. We went through several really tough things this past year, so I count this past year a huge success. I can’t wait to see what God does this year!