What we have found at New Season Church, is that the majority of our new believers have never been church goers.  While generations past have had somewhat of an understanding of baptism, and it has also been understood in the culture of the Church as somewhat expected, people of this generation do not necessarily fall into that category any longer.

To be honest for the most part, NSC struggles with connecting people to baptism….especially when comparing the amount of people coming to Christ to those following through in believers baptism.

So…..what do we do about this?

Simple:  We help them understand it.

Baptism is never to be forced upon, but it is our responsibility as the body of Christ to help new followers understand their next step.

So this is exactly what we are doing.  We discuss Baptism in every connecting experience we have at New Season Church (new members class, link lunch for visitors, sermons, small groups, and First Steps). 

Through First Steps, we discuss its representation and testimony of Christ’s death and resurrection and because of his newness of life, we now have newness of life.  We try to make it super simple for followers beginning their journey….”Death to your old self and a new life in Christ.”

Well, here we go…

The 1st part of First Steps deals with salvation.  We introduce the class by asking the question….”what happened?”  (p.s. about 70% of this curriculum is ripped from 12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, Ga…..great team over there!)  We take the new believer through the process of understanding what they actually experienced by Jesus coming into their lives. 

We discuss scriptures on what it means to be a sinner; how God sent His son to die for us; and the new life we now have in Him!.

One of my favorite parts about this section of the class is to explain what is made new in these new believers.  The guys at 12Stone Church developed this perfectly, and this is what is made new:

• New Creation              2 Corinthians 5:17
• New Heart                    Ezekiel 36:26
• New Self                        Colossians 3:10
• New Spirit                    2 Corinthians 3:17
• New Home                   Philippians 3:20

Pretty simple. But very intentional.  I like it.

I am so excited to see this thing grow in the coming months!

Here’s the subjects:

• Salvation: What Happened?
• Baptism: What is the significance and why do I need to be baptized
• Community: The importance of connecting in authentic relationships
• Serve: Get involved

During some upcoming posts I’ll dive a little deeper into these subjects and their contents.  But just a quick question, what do you think a new believers “first steps” should be in their new journey with Christ?

-P.J.

Being a pastor on staff in the evangelical Church today, one would hope (especially me) that one characteristic used to describe me would be… a “leader”.  But I’m just now learning probably the most elemental leadership lesson that there is.

Most of my leadership style thus far has been to ask an individual to do this or do that….that “no, we are not going to do that” or “sure we can do this” without proper thought behind the decision, and to be honest the majority of the time not having or showing much concern for the individual that’s supposed to be being “lead”.

BIG MISTAKE!!

I’m in the process right now of recruiting small group facilitators for our developing small groups program.  As I sit down with an individual one-on-one during this process, it comes to me clearly like a slap in the face:  I cannot just ask this person, “hey, do you want to be a small group facilitator?”  No!  I have to develop a relationship with them first.  I have to ask them how their wife is doing, how their husband is doing, how their kids are doing, how work is going.  I have to show an interest in them!

But even then I don’t jump directly to the “task at hand”.  I begin to speak vision into their lives….vision of how God can use them, vision in how I view their leadership capabilities in this type of ministry, vision of why small groups are such an integral necessity for our church.

After this, that’s when the request of the task comes in.

If you haven’t learned this leadership lesson yet, you better learn quick.  Because if not, you soon won’t have too many followers.

Lesson learned…..leadership begins with the person, not the task.

I believe all Christians would say that “yes…Christ is returning again”, but my question is are we looking for it?  Do we desire it?  Chan says, “I look at my life and keep thinking about the end.”  As I listen to his words and heart, my heart is convicted and spurred into a pursuit of being “ready” for Christ’s return. 

I’ve come to notice that we live in a Christian culture this day and age in which this very important event is completely overlooked most of the time.  But why? 

I want to be different…I want to look for His return in haste…believing in it so much that I actually do things to bring it about quicker.

My whole life I have passionately sought after God.  Some times I seek harder, some times I seek less.  I can remember one season of my life in which I thought I could find God through emotion….the idea that if I had some type of encounter to where goose bumps came over me, tears began to flow, and almost a sense of intoxicating drunkenness was experienced…then….then I truly encountered God.

But more recently God has been revealing himself to me in a new way…and I think in a much purer way for me. 

Yesterday I visited a lady in a behavioral corrections facility in the Atlanta area.  The people in this facility were broken, hurting, confused, in pain.  As I spoke with this lady my heart was humbled.  By being with her there, in that moment, sharing in her suffering…I experienced God. 

Blessed are the poor…

Blessed are those who mourn…

Blessed are the broken…

God is with broken people…and I want to be with God.

I heard these lyrics last Saturday night from an amazing worship leader names Daniel Bashta.  “Hell can you hear me…darkness do you fear me?”  The song was about realizing the power within and screaming out with the authority of Jesus that you will change the course of eternity by making such an impact on people’s lives that hell gets less crowded and heaven gets more people. 

As I think about this concept, I notice that I do well in some aspects and not so well in others.  When it comes to righteous living and living out my faith before non-believers, I would say that I do pretty well.  But when it comes to voicing my faith through evangelism…I know that I got a lot more to get better at.  I don’t do so well at this. 

So as I examine my life….my prayer for myself is authority and boldness….authority and boldness to proclaim the Gospel to a dying and hurting generation…so I won’t have to ask the question but will know in my heart that Hell can hear me and darkness fears me.

What do you do when you’ve been engaged in the creative process all day long and you come to that point where you can’t think anymore?  With a world of deadlines, sometimes the option to quit is no option at all.  So here’s my suggestion: Pray and Rest. 

Pray that God, the best creator,  will move in and through you to work on your current project with His leading.

Rest. Simply put….don’t try to create for 8 hours on 6 hours of sleep.  You are not a machine.  Rest.

So…this post probably isn’t going the direction your thinking, but Ill continue none the less.  The other day I had a 7 year old with me and we were goofing off driving down the road, playing slug bug, and engaging in deep conversation just like anyone would with any regular 7 year old.  As we are driving down the road, out of nowhere, this kid says…..”I love Mexican food.”  “Im gonna marry a taco”.  Of course this was the most humorous thing i had heard all day so the jokes continued with him and his “taco” wife having taquitos as children.

But something sparked me about the conversation.  The imagination and goofiness of this 7 year old is what all of us need.  His mind was turning, thinking about random things one hour, and he just decided to voice it.  For the majority of us, most of the time, we don’t allow our minds to be imaginative.  We focus on the stuff we got to get done that day, tomorrow, next week or next year…

I say…”why not marry a taco”?