“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”
—1 Thessalonians 5:11
It’s exciting to see children discover something adults take for granted, like the first time they taste ice cream or the first time they see snow or the first time they walk on the sand. In their excitement, we rediscover it ourselves.
The same is true spiritually. If a Christian has a life that isn’t welcoming to new believers, then something is wrong. They need us. But we also need them. Why? We will rediscover the things that we take for granted. New believers need more mature believers to stabilize them. And more mature believers need new believers to revitalize them. In the Christian life, we can begin to take things for granted. We perhaps don’t enjoy certain things as much as we ought to.
New believers are the lifeblood of the church, but they are also the lifeblood of older Christians. Some churches grow by church transfer, in which most of their congregants come from other churches. Harvest Christian Fellowship grows primarily from new convert growth. We are an evangelistic church, without apology.
I believe that Christ died for the whole world, and whoever will believe in him can be forgiven of their sins. My job is to preach the gospel and invite people to Jesus Christ, and I will keep doing this.
What a new believer needs more than anything else is a friend. They don’t need a Bible scholar. (If you are a Bible scholar, all the better. But new believers don’t need that.) They simply need someone to show them what a real, living, breathing Christian looks like.
We are all called to do this. Yet many of us would admit that we just don’t. If you take a new believer under your wing, not only will you help someone else, but you will also help yourself.
This article originally appeared on GregLaurie.com.