The Way Begins Here: A Pastoral Invitation to New Believers

Jesus, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Growth, The Bible

I often meet people who are brand new to Christianity and want to follow Jesus, and they are looking for guidance on how to go about it. Certainly there is a bunch of resources (both printed and online) that are published for this purpose. But for several reasons, I’ve been feeling inspired to write my own concise, curated response. So this simple post will serve as something I can offer these people as I encounter them.

Four thoughts.

1 // Find, join, and invest yourself in a local church community.

Christianity is not an individual exercise. It can only be lived faithfully within gathered communities of people. The individuals within this church will not always agree on every particular cultural issue or theological idea. They will most likely represent a wide range of perspectives, backgrounds, and life stages. However, this kind of difference is actually healthy, necessary, and conducive for our spiritual growth. Healthy churches are communities of “differents” who otherwise unite around their common allegiance to Jesus as Lord.

In general, I recommend taking some time to determine which church to join. Churches come in many forms, shapes, and sizes. Personally, if I was in the position of looking for a church to join, there are numerous things I would be looking for. But I’ll offer two things that I consider to be extremely important.

First, find a church that makes a big deal about Jesus. Look for a church in which the pastor and primary leaders seem utterly fascinated with Jesus. Not just with the Bible. But with Jesus himself (Seriously. This is not always the case.). Jesus, his life, his teachings, his vision, and his present work in the world should somehow be the ultimate focus of every single sermon.

Secondly, find a church that is caring for you as a human being rather than merely counting you as a statistic. This doesn’t mean a church should not be large and/or growing numerically. But regardless of size, it should be easy to connect with people and build relationships. And hopefully someone very soon will be recognizing you, learning your name, and helping you find your way into the community.

From the very beginning of Christianity, the formal entry point into the community of Christ’s followers is water baptism. So once you’ve decided to join a local church, ask the pastor about the next opportunity to get baptized.

2 // Develop a healthy rhythm of prayer.

Your ultimate goal is not merely to become a Christian, but to become Christian. You’re learning to embrace a new way of life. So not only are we going to join a local community of Christ’s followers, but we are going to embrace formational practices that will, over time (by God’s grace), empower us to become people who increasingly reflect Jesus in the world.

Prayer is an indispensable means of formation into the image of Christ. We pray not simply to get God to do what we think God ought to do, but to be properly formed. You are misshapen. There are things that are fundamentally wrong with your inner life. And the purpose and practice of prayer (primarily) is to form you in a correct and healthy way.

If you have never prayed or are not quite sure where to start, I would encourage you to begin by memorizing and praying the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer belonged to the church long before it became canonized scripture. It is older than the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Try to take about 10-15 minutes with it. Pray it slowly with deep intentionality. Meditate on it section by section. Perhaps pray it a second time, substituting your own words, stretching it out a bit. Maybe eventually from there you might consider adding a second element, such as Psalm 23. Sometimes in prayer we want to jump immediately into making requests. And there’s plenty of opportunity for you to express yourself extemporaneously and pray from your heart. I’m not taking that away from you. I’m just suggesting placing it within a formative context. Before you pour concrete, you must build forms, or else it just goes everywhere and it ends up a mess.

The primary purpose of prayer is for the human being to encounter God and be formed by God. Because left to ourselves, a selfish person is going to pray a selfish prayer. A greedy person is going to pray a greedy prayer. A manipulative person will pray a manipulative prayer, a fearful person will pray a fearful prayer. You must not leave prayer up to your own self. We need the help and wisdom of scripture and our forefathers and foremothers in the faith.

For much more from me on prayer, I’ve written this book. Twice a year, I also give free one-day Prayer Workshops at Village Church in Burbank, CA.

3 // Become friends with the Bible.

Like prayer, the Bible as our sacred text is essential to Christian formation. The word Bible simply means “book.” And this book is comprised of two main sections, the Hebrew Scriptures, with its 39 books that we call the Old Testament, and the Christian scriptures, with its 27 books that we call the New Testament. The Old Testament is the story of God’s revelation of himself to a chosen people, and his interaction with them all leading up to Messiah.

The Bible is not an end unto itself. What the Bible does is lead us to Jesus who is the Savior. The Bible is the inspired and sacred revelation of Jesus, who alone is the perfect and quintessential revelation of God (Jn. 5:39, Heb. 1:1-3). So that we read the Bible, not as an almanac, not as an encyclopedia, not as a law book, but as our most trusted guide to revealing Jesus to us.

There are plenty of approaches to reading the Bible. One of the methods I teach in the Scripture Workshop I give once a year involves reading the Bible according to the Christian calendar. Here’s the guide I use. I begin by spending roughly 15 minutes reading from the Old Testament (until I find a good stopping point), and then I do the same with the New Testament.

Reading the Bible this way provides enormous benefit. It keeps the larger story of the Bible fresh in my mind. Also, pairing the Old Testament reading with the New Testament often helps me identify interesting connections that I may not otherwise have seen. I also like this method of reading because it gives privilege to the Gospels, anchoring me to the life and teachings of Christ. (As a Christian why would I spend just as much time reading Leviticus as I read the Gospel of Luke, for example?) Finally, reading the Bible this way keeps me tethered to the Christian calendar and the richness it provides through its various seasons (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Eastertide). If you’d like more information on the Christian calendar and when the various seasons begin and end, you can learn more here.

4 // Finally, give yourself lots of patience.

You are beginning a life-long journey of discipleship, becoming who Jesus wants you to be. And the journey itself is integral to the becoming. It will be happening even when you don’t know it’s happening. In fact, much of the time you are in the process of becoming when you least are aware of it. When you’re just involved in the mundane humdrum of following Jesus, praying prayers, coming to church, hearing sermons, reading your Bible… it may not always seem very exciting. But in the midst of all of that, you are in fact, becoming. It’s not a destination, but transformation that Jesus has in mind.

And in following Jesus throughout your life, some of the pain, some of the sorrow, and some of the failures that we experience are a necessary part of the journey. This is a complex issue that will not yield to simplistic answers. Does God cause all this evil to come? No, I’m certainly not saying that. But there are things that are allowed into our lives that are unpleasant, that we do not want to experience, but we do. And they are, in fact, necessary for us to become what we are intended to become. They’re not the end of the story. But they are part of the process, the journey of becoming.

So be patient with yourself. And even in your failures and sorrows, let the heavenly artisan go to work.

Six Stone Jars

Spiritual Growth, Theology

In the story of Jesus turning water to wine at the wedding of Cana (John 2:1-10), he tells the servants to fill six stone jars with water and bring them to the master of the feast.

When the person in charge tasted the water that had become wine and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), that person called the bridegroom ¹⁰and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

I’ve been meditating on this passage for the last few weeks. It’s a story that is especially near and dear to me, and I happen to be preaching on it this weekend. A thought came to me that won’t necessarily “fit” into my sermon. So I thought I’d share it here.

Denominations, churches, ministries, institutions, and programs (etc.) are like the stone water jars in this story. First of all, they are often necessary conduits for God’s work in the world. They symbolize our own human participation in the miracle that Jesus performs. These servants had to pour 120-180 gallons of water into these six jars (made by human hands) and carry each of them to the master of the feast. Without a dolly, I presume.

Much human effort went into the creation and usage of these stone jars. A lot like the ministries and institutions that we create and maintain. Again, these jars are necessary and crucial to God’s work in the world.

However, the miracle is not the jar itself but in what it contains. In this story there are six jars full of water turned to wine. Over the next few days, I would imagine as one jar is emptied it is simply set aside and another one is set in its place.

Institutions and ministries can have long seasons of peak capacity and usage. But eventually things become empty and hollow. This may not necessarily be a sign that something is wrong. It’s just that it’s time to move to the next jar of wine. Don’t mistake the jar for the wine. Celebrate what God has done, but look for what God is doing now.

Selah.

The [Un]Locked Door

Church Leadership, Jesus, Spiritual Growth

I want you to imagine Christianity depicted as a large house. A house with multiple floors, sections, and rooms.

There’s a Catholic section. An Orthodox section. There are rooms for Anabaptists and Anglicans. Rooms for Mainline Protestants, Pentecostals & Charismatics. And there’s an entire floor for the vast array of Evangelicals. Lots and lots of rooms.

All under the same roof.

I was raised in a church that belonged to the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world—the Assemblies of God (a.k.a. the A/G). After eventually graduating from an A/G university with a degree in Pastoral Ministries, I spent the first seventeen years of my vocational ministry life working at an A/G church.

I have nothing but gratitude and respect for the Assemblies of God. I wouldn’t trade my experience for that of anyone else. And I will always be Pentecostal—that is, I am resolutely convicted that one can have real experiences with God. God is not simply a subject to be studied in a seminary textbook. God is a real Being we can encounter. This is and always will be part of my identity.

Nevertheless, here is my confession.

For the vast majority of my years, I spent my life in a locked room. My exposure to the rest of the Christian house was embarrassingly minimal. The door was kept locked for a variety of reasons. Early on, I suppose it was out of simple ignorance. As a child I probably had no idea there were other rooms.

But over time, it was my growing fears and insecurities that kept the door locked. No doubt these fears were stoked by external voices. But the effect was deep and long-lasting. By the time I was a twenty-something minister, virtually all of the sermons I listened to, books I read, and leaders I gleaned from were from within my own tiny section of the house.

Then at some point in my early 30s, I began to get a little claustrophobic. My dissatisfaction combined with wonder & curiosity emboldened me for the first time to unlock the door. I walked through that door and began to wander a bit outside of my own little room.

And as I allowed myself to explore the rest of the house, a surprising thing happened. I kept discovering riches in every room. I began to learn from Christians of every kind and from every section of the house. I stumbled upon the realization that while every stream and tradition of the Christian faith has its faults and excesses, it also has something essential and beautiful to bring to the table. Quarantining myself within my own locked room only kept me impoverished from the diverse wealth of Christ’s church.

Maintaining a sectarian mindset confines us to a limited perspective. As long as we incarcerate ourselves within the boundaries of our own streams and traditions, we’ll never gain the capacity to see things from a different point-of-view. We simply don’t know what we don’t know. It’s a subtle form of self-deception. We are seeking to console our own fears and anxieties within the locked room of a theological system, rather than following the One who transcends boundaries and systems.

That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.”
John 20:19

Therefore, I want to give you permission to take a tour around the house. You don’t have to spend your entire life locked inside a bedroom closet. Unlock the door. (The door is always locked from the inside.) Step out into the hallway and begin to look around. It doesn’t mean you have to permanently move out of your own room, of course. It’s always nice to have a place we can return to every night.

But it’s also okay to enjoy and appreciate the rest of the house. Sure, you’ll spend more time in some rooms than others. You’ll probably even gain a deeper appreciation for what you like about your own room.

But once you start discovering the multifaceted beauty and diverse goodness of this magnificent edifice we call the global and historic church of Jesus Christ, you’ll never want to lock the door again.

(The artwork is “House of Belonging” by Scott Erickson.)