Discipling a New Believer? Lay These 5 Foundations

Just as a newborn baby must be nourished and nurtured by those who are older and more mature in order to grow, so a newborn Christian needs the care and guidance of believers who are further along in the faith. This is the work of Christian discipleship.

In the Great Commission, Jesus makes clear that this work involves those who are already disciples, teaching new disciples to obey everything he has commanded. Discipling a new believer, in other words, is essentially helping them learn how to bring every part of their lives under the lordship of Jesus Christ. That is, learning how to live in the goodness of his lordship and to walk in daily obedience to his commands.

As long as Matthew 28:18–20 is in the Bible, disciple-making is a work every Christian has been called and commissioned to do.

But how exactly do we do it?

In this article, I want to give you five foundation stones to lay down over five initial meetings with a new believer. I would encourage you to invite that new believer to commit to meeting once a fortnight five times to lay these foundations firmly in place.

Table of contents

1. God’s gospel
2. God’s living Word
3. God’s listening ear
4. God’s gathered people
5. God’s global mission

1. God’s gospel

I remember my New Testament professor Don Carson once saying, “The gospel is always the New Testament’s major category for discipleship.” His point: The four Gospels present the gospel event, and the rest of the New Testament essentially unpacks its meaning, significance, and implications. This means discipling any new believer must begin with the gospel, making sure they have a correct and broad understanding of it.

Discipling any new believer must begin with the gospel, making sure they have a correct and broad understanding of it.

When I sit with a new believer, I take them to 1 Corinthians 15:1–8, where we walk through the epicenter of the gospel event: “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” Then I will take them to a variety of passages to help them understand the accomplishments that flow from this event:

• Forgiveness of sins (Col 2:12–13)
• Peace with God (Rom 5:1)
• Enjoyment of God’s grace (Rom 5:2)
• New creation life (2 Cor 5:17)
• Identity as a child of God (Gal 4:6–7)
• Eternal life (John 3:16)
• Joyful hope (Rom 5:11)
• Imputed righteousness (Phil 3:9)
• Gospel assurance (Rom 8:31–39)

I work to help them see how we receive all of this by being in Christ. I want to make sure they understand faith and repentance, union with Christ, and the work of God’s Spirit bringing about new birth.

Finally, I try to show them that the gospel which saves us is also meant to shape every area of life, especially our character. The gospel has two great ends: It opens the way for us to enjoy God (living in the goodness of the gospel), and it empowers us to serve God (living out the goodness of the gospel).

2. God’s living Word

Explain to this new believer the truth of Deuteronomy 8:3, where we read, “Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” This text teaches us that every person has two parts of their being that each require its own form of nourishment. We possess physical bodies with their appetites for physical food to keep our bodies strong and healthy. But there’s also the soul with its need for spiritual nourishment by way of spiritual food.

According to Deuteronomy 8, this spiritual food consists of “every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” God’s Word makes our souls grow strong and healthy. Likewise Peter explains, as newborn babies crave milk from their mothers, so newborn Christians are to crave the spiritual milk of the Word “so that by it they may grow up in their salvation” (1 Pet 2:2). According to John 17:17, the Word of God is God’s primary means to bring about sanctification in the life of the believer.

But the goal of discipleship is not merely knowledge but communion with God. Help the new believer see that as God speaks to us through his Word, he or she experiences real fellowship with the triune God. According to Hebrews 3:7, the Holy Spirit continues to speak today through the Words he spoke in the past. Yet, because the Word contains spiritual realities, help them see their need for the Spirit’s ongoing illumination if they are to understand and delight in what they read (1 Cor 2:12–13).

3. God’s listening ear

Tim Keller helpfully defines prayer in this way: “Prayer is continuing a conversation that God has started through his Word and his grace, which eventually becomes a full encounter with him.”¹ Help the new believer see prayer as their response to God. God speaks first—through his Word—and we reflect his Word to him, praying through what we have come to know and believe as we meditate on his Word.

When I was young, I was taught the simple acronym ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication), which can be a helpful tool to guide new believers on how to pray. Take time to show them examples of these kinds of prayers in Scripture.

Show them how you practice prayer in your own life. Be honest about your experiences and struggles. Allow them to hear something of your own journey with God. I keep a prayer folder to organize my daily prayers and will often show this to new believers to encourage them to develop structure and intentionality in their own prayer lives.

Make use of Logos’s Prayer Lists to track prayers for yourself and others. Start a free trial today!

4. God’s gathered people

Help the new believer understand that, upon their regeneration, they were spiritually baptized into one body, Christ’s universal church (1 Cor 12:12–31). The primary way they live out their membership in the universal church is by becoming a committed member of a local church.

Work through Scripture, helping them see the following:

• They have been built together with other believers like living stones into a spiritual temple, that is, a place of worship and service of God (1 Pet 2:4–10)
• The importance of baptism, church membership, and learning to obey all Christ has commanded them (Matt 28:18–20)
• The centrality of the Lord’s Supper as an expression of our unity together in Christ (Mark 14:22–25; 1 Cor 11:17–34)
• Every part of the body has a part to play in the building up of the whole to a place of spiritual maturity and health (Eph 4:1–16)
• The importance of generosity, financial giving, and servant-hearted love for the body of Christ into which we have been saved

5. God’s global mission

John Piper opens his book on missions with these memorable lines: “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”² God is worthy of the worship, honor, and glory of every person in the world.

Take the new believer to Matthew 28:16–20 to show them this great mission Christ has given to his church, the Great Commission. Then I suggest turning to Acts 17:16, where Paul arrives in Athens. Observe Paul’s distress at God’s glory being given to idols. Help the believer grasp that missions flows from this sort of deep concern for God’s honor and a longing to see his name worshipped among all peoples.

Finally, teach the new believer a simple and faithful way to share their faith and hope in Christ. Introduce them to examples of godly missionaries—such as Hudson Taylor, Jim Elliot, or Amy Carmichael—to show how ordinary believers have been used by God to make Christ known throughout the world.

Foundations for growth

As you lay these foundations, invite the new believer into your home for a meal. Let them see the real you in everyday life and allow them to witness how the gospel shapes the tone and priorities of your family.

Once these five foundation stones are firmly in place, encourage the new believer to enter into a regular Bible-reading relationship with a more mature Christian, or to become meaningfully connected to a church small group. Much growth will come naturally as they become more fully embedded in the life of the local church.

With these foundations laid, they will be well positioned to grow in their knowledge of God, their love for his Word, and their grasp of what it means to live all of life under the lordship of Christ!

Share your thoughts

What is the most important element of discipling a new believer? Join us in the Word by Word group to share your thoughts.

Resources for discipleship

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• How the Bible Defines Discipleship: 12 Core Elements
• Does Your Church Have a Discipleship Culture? How to Cultivate It
• What Are the Best Books on Discipleship?
• Deep Discipleship in a Digital Age: Rethinking Church, Ministry, and Life Together in an Online World
• What Is the Great Commission—& Is It Even for Me?

1. Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God (Penguin, 2016), 48.
2. John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad!: The Supremacy of God in Missions, 30th anniv. ed. (Baker Academic, 2022), 3.