“They need to be shown that the message which led them to Christ is the genuinely central message of the New Testament. So show them it again and again, from different books and different authors. If you’re meeting up regularly (and you should), take them on a tour of key verses.”

I remember strapping our new-born son into his car seat, helping my very brave (very sore) wife with her seat belt, and driving our new little family home from the hospital. I don’t think I’ve ever driven so carefully in my life, including on the day of my driving test.

And then—and all the parents out there will understand this—we arrived home, unloaded the car and the child, made a drink, and looked at each other. So what are we supposed to do now? There’s no pdf or app that comes with a baby. How are you supposed to do this parenting thing?

And if you’re ever dealing with a brand new, shiny Christian, you may have felt something similar. What, a real new Christian? What’s the right food? Are we all on our best behaviour as if with a new stranger? How can I tell if he needs a new diaper?

Ok, maybe not the diaper.

But what do baby Christians need from you?

New Christians need the gospel

Well, to state the obvious, they need the gospel. That is, they need to be shown that the message which led them to Christ is the genuinely central message of the New Testament. So show them it again and again, from different books and different authors. If you’re meeting up regularly (and you should), take them on a tour of key verses. Perhaps take them through the sermons in Acts. Or read through 1 Thessalonians or Philippians. Anything that will show them that they didn’t believe an eccentric oddity, but the main road through.

And yes, in time, they’ll discover that the gospel is central to the Old Testament, too. But give them time. Zechariah will still be there next year.

New Christians need to know they will mess up but that they have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them

Secondly, they need to discover two key truths about Christian experience: the ongoing presence of sin, and the indwelling power of  the Holy Spirit. One of the most destructive ways the Evil One knocks a new believer sideways, is by sudden hard temptation and numbing guilt. They’ll feel enormously discouraged if they expected anything different.

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