In 2010, while leading our last church before going to China, we set aside four weeks of focused prayer. We asked our people to pray, fast and let as many know about these special days as possible. The result: our sanctuary overflowed for these four weeks! This was our plan:
She came for the second Sunday and brought her kids to be blessed. She had been invited by her co-worker (one of our members). We sang simple, children’s songs that Sunday during worship. There was a brief message. Then we had recruited, trained and positioned trusted and respected leaders around the sanctuary to pray with anyone who came to them.
She came to Debbie and me with her children. She presented them one at a time and told us about them. And one at a time, Debbie and I invited her to join us in laying hands on her children and lifting them to God for a special blessing. God drew near in those moments.
She began attending regularly. She committed her life to Christ. Debbie and I were enfolded by her family and circle of friends. Our circle of friendship expanded significantly during those ensuing months! She brought family members and friends to worship with her.
Her life and purpose began to re-orient around Christ! We saw changes take place as her priorities were gradually rearranged by her new commitments.
After six months we hired her as an office assistant. She took the role very seriously and was diligent to learn and do the best job possible. My administrative assistant and I invested in her through a commitment of much time and tremendous focus. There were challenges involved in helping her to adapt to a role that she had never dreamed possible.
However, she was so eager to learn and grow that we could do nothing but continue to invest and take joy in the transformation occurring before our very eyes!
She gave our whole congregation a living picture of what it is to have Christ reorient your life. She became a catalyst and inspired all of our people by her zeal and joy! She exemplified old things are passed away and behold all things are become new!
I wish I could give this story a happy ending – but I can’t. Debbie and I left two years after we met her. We followed a course that took us to China for three years. A new pastor was appointed. Many changes took place.
She, and all who had come with her, fell away. Church members were caught up in the chaos of the transition to new leadership and failed to pursue her and the others. And today, my heart still aches.
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New believers
are fragile! Like a new plant, they need
attention, water, food and care to be able to grow to maturity. Without this, they are likely to
relapse. Even when these things ARE in
place – they will still often relapse.
It takes tremendous focus, patience and time to walk with someone
through this process. Think about the
eighteen-plus years we spend helping our children to grow and mature before we
launch them into the adult world! It’s
the same with new believers!
Coming alongside a new believer will energize your life! Spending time with them will remind you of your own journey and the steps you took to grow into the ‘new you’! You will find yourself reading your own Bible more because you want to be able to lead your protégé in helpful and productive ways! Your own life will be catalyzed and challenged as you invest in the growth of another! Churches can be transformed when this process becomes normative! Stagnant, ineffective believers can be renewed and recapture the joy of their early years of faith!
Why not begin to pray and ask God to lead you into this kind of a relationship? Begin to look around to see if God might be leading you to establish a discipling connection with a neighbor, co-worker, family member, new person at church or friend. It WILL be just what they need! It might also be just what YOU need!
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