The person who moves from Chair 1 to Chair 2 has made an extraordinary transformation. She has not simply added Jesus to her life. She has been “made alive with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5). This is a total transformation of passing from the darkness to light, from death to life, from the kingdom of this world to the Kingdom of God. Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to the new believer (Romans 5:17, 19). This is a radical inner transformation that needs to be celebrated. Baptism is the outward expression of this inner transformation, and should accompany this act of faith. For this reason baptism is one of a believer’s first steps of obedience.



In other words, Chair 2 represents the new believer, the person who has just crossed the line, repented of his sin, put his faith in Christ and is now a “new creation in Christ.” The old is gone and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Despite this radical inner transformation, the Scriptures are clear: new believers need nurture and care to continue successfully in their new life. The New Testament uses two words to describe new believers. Hebrews 5:13 calls them infants: “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.” The word used here is the Greek word nepios which indicates someone immature and totally dependent upon others. The second word, translated “child,” is the word teknion. It has a similar connotation, but is used more as a term of affection toward a young child, a term of endearment I might use as a grandparent in reference to my wonderful grandkids. John uses the term often in his first epistle (1 John 2:1, 12, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; and 5:21). Both terms refer to a young believer, someone growing in the faith and learning the Christian life. They are dependent upon others for help and sustenance, need nurture and care. They need basic training and help developing basic skills.
My wife and I have the privilege of having five new grandchildren within the last three years. What an unspeakable joy! I’ve always loved children, but there is something special about loving your own grandchildren and watching them grow and mature. I was nervous at the birth of my own three daughters. Each time I worried if I’d be a good dad, raise them properly, and do all the right things. But with grandchildren, those fears are nonexistent. All I feel is pure love and joy. We enjoy watching them learn to walk, talk, and feed themselves. We celebrate little things, such as first steps and potty training. The joy is in the journey itself, the process of helping them grow.
And so should it be with spiritual children. The joy is in the journey. It is normal and natural to grow, make mistakes, and learn from them. It is normal and natural to start out dependent on others and then to learn to feed yourself, to learn to walk and talk, to learn to care for yourself. That means that, just as literal children needs parents, spiritual children need spiritual parents to lead them through this process.

THE PROCESS MODELED
Jesus understood this process. Early on in His ministry, when Jesus challenged the disciples to “follow me,” He took His disciples to a wedding party up in Galilee and performed His first miracle (John 2:1–11). Making the journey to Galilee, attending the wedding, and then traveling to Capernaum for a “few days” with Jesus’s mother and brothers meant that Jesus and His disciples were together for several days (John 2:12). No doubt this was a time of teaching, relationship building, answering basic questions, and deepening friendship. From there Jesus went up to the Passover and met with Nicodemus (John 2–3). “After this,” John tells us in summary, “Jesus and his disciples (followers) went out into the Judean countryside, where he was spent some time with them, and baptized” (John 3:22).
Jesus took the time to get to know His followers, and they got to know Him. Relationships take time and growth takes time. Jesus knew there was no effective way to speed up this process. Jesus spent up to eighteen months just developing His disciples through this first stage.
For Jesus and the initial followers, this was a critical stage of development. He was modeling life to them, modeling what it meant to walk as He walked, which He later commanded them to do (1 John 2:6). Jesus knew that in this first phase of life, much like in the early phases of child rearing, more is caught than taught. Children learn more by watching and participating than by taking notes. So He invested relationally in His young followers.
In these early months, Jesus modeled six foundational priorities for His new followers. First, Jesus modeled full dependence upon the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures are clear—every aspect of Jesus’s life and ministry was saturated with the Spirit of God. Jesus was conceived by the Spirit (Luke 1:35), anointed by the Spirit (Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38; Isaiah 61:1), filled with the Spirit (Luke 4:1, 14; John 3:34), sealed by the Spirit (John 6:27), led by the Spirit (Luke 4:1), rejoiced in the Spirit (Luke 10:21), gave commands by the Spirit (Acts 1:2), performed miracles by the power of the Spirit (Matthew 12:28; Luke 4:14–15, 18), was resurrected by the Spirit (Hebrews 9:14; Romans 8:11), and through the Spirit presented Himself fully obedient (Hebrews 9:14).
Second, Jesus modeled the centrality of prayer in His life and ministry. His ministry began in prayer (Luke 3:21) and ended in prayer (Luke 23:46). Shortly after His baptism the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness (Luke 4:1), where He launched His ministry with forty days of fasting and prayer. The busier Jesus became, the more He slipped away to pray (Mark 6:31). Before every major decision Jesus makes, you find Him coming out of prayer (Luke 6:12). Over forty-five passages in the Gospels record how Jesus often slipped away to pray (Luke 5:16).
Third, Jesus modeled the importance of obedience to His Father’s will. Early in Jesus’s life, when He was twelve years old, Jesus was obedient to His earthly parents, Mary and Joseph (Luke 2:51). For His entire life He was obedient to His Heavenly Father. Obedience wasn’t easy. He suffered for His obedience, and He learned obedience through what He suffered (Hebrews 2:18; 5:8). Jesus Himself said, “I seek not to please myself but him who sent me” (John 5:30) and that His will was to do what the Father desired, “Yet not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Later Jesus turned to His disciples and told them to “go and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20, italics added). Jesus knew that obedience was His Father’s love language.
Fourth, God’s Word was central in Christ’s life and ministry. He modeled its use in every situation. Jesus knew the Word and used it as He encountered the everyday issues of life. He referred to the Old Testament more than eighty times, quoting from over seventy different chapters. Scripture was on His lips during His entire ministry, from the hour of His temptation to the moment of His death. Jesus wanted His disciples to know that He had not come to set aside the Scriptures but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17). The Pharisees grieved Jesus because they didn’t study the Word diligently. Jesus often said, “Have you never read what David did?” (Luke 6:3) or “Have you never read in the Law?” He rebuked the Sadducees for not studying the Word: “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures?” (Mark 12:24). Jesus recognized Scripture as His guide for knowing the Father’s will and understanding His own role in the world (John 13:1; 19:28).
Fifth, Christ consistently modeled the pattern of exalting His Father in every area of life. This was evident early in his ministry, as Jesus stated: “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God” (John 3:21). Toward the end of His ministry, Jesus still acknowledged that everything He had came from the Father: “Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you” (John 17:7). Again and again, Jesus claimed, “I do nothing on my own … rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work” (John 8:28; 14:10). Every part of Jesus’s life exalted the Father and His union with His Father. In the same way, we are to exalt the Father in all that we do, following the example set for us by Jesus.
Sixth, Jesus modeled intentional relationships of love and integrity throughout His life. The very essence of the incarnation underscores this truth. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). Early in His ministry, Jesus prioritized building relationships with a broad base of people. From these relationships Jesus later identified a few with whom He went deeper. But not only was Jesus proactive with the lost, but He intentionally pursued the initial disciples. Love was the basis of Jesus’s relational life and He challenged the disciples to have the same love in their relationships. “As I have loved you,” He commanded, “so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34–35).
These six priorities were foundational to the way Jesus lived His earthly life. When Jesus told His disciples to walk as He had walked, it was these priorities He wanted them to embody (1 John 2:6). It is these values new believers must see modeled by more mature believers as they start their Christian journey.

THE NEEDS OF NEW BELIEVERS
Helping children grow is not rocket science. As my wife and I enjoy our grandchildren, it is obvious what their immediate needs are. They need to know first and foremost who they belong to. Who is their family and who are their parents? In time, they need to learn how to walk and talk and feed themselves. They also need to learn, in time, how to clean themselves, or become potty trained.
It was critical to Jesus that He understand whom He belonged to. At His baptism, for the very first time, Jesus heard His Father’s voice say, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). In the Old Testament, learned rabbis would string together key verses from three major parts of the Old Testament to convey a truth. This was called stringing pearls. At Jesus’s baptism, God the Father did the same thing. He took references from three major portions of the Old Testament and strung them together to make a profound statement: “You are my son” (Psalm 2:7), “whom I love” (Genesis 22:2), “with you I am well pleased” (Isaiah 42:1). With these three brief citations, God spoke of Jesus as a king, a servant, and His son.
New believers also need to know their true identity, especially since that identity has been so radically altered at conversion. The Bible lists thirty-three things that happen the moment we come to Christ. We are chosen, adopted, forgiven, redeemed, included in Christ, sealed with the Holy Spirit, made alive, and seated with Him in the heavenly realm—and more! All of these transformations speak to our identity as followers of Christ. Our identity is essential to being able to know not only who we are but also whose we are. To move into Chair 3 as a worker, we must know whose we are, as this will be tested again and again, just as Satan tested Jesus right after His baptism. Understanding our identity in Christ is a lifelong journey, but we must begin immediately helping new believers understand their new identity. We can live victoriously for Christ when we understand who we are in Christ. We don’t strive for victory; we live from victory. The battle has been won and we are on the winning team.
Second, new believers need to learn to walk on their own. My wife and I had the great privilege of having our oldest daughter and our two grandchildren living with us for six months, as our son-in-law finished seminary studies. During this time, our first grandson learned to crawl and then to walk and then started running. What a joy!
For hours we watched together with excitement as little Kellen began to crawl. Then we celebrated as he pulled himself to his feet up all by himself. He was such a proud little boy. He looked at all of us and grinned. Soon he began to push his walker and take some steps on his own. Then one day it happened. All on his own, he took off. He took his first steps. We all hurried into the room to watch him do it again and again, and we all cheered to his delight. Soon he was off to the races. And we have had a hard time keeping up with him ever since.
This delight, this joy we experienced—it should be no different as we watch new believers in Christ, spiritual children, begin to walk as Jesus walked. Trusting the Holy Spirit, saying their first prayer, obeying through difficulties, becoming Word-centered, exalting Jesus in everything, and then building new relationships with love and integrity. Children learn to walk because they see other people doing it—their parents and grandparents, maybe older siblings. But without models who demonstrate the way, this journey can take so much longer. Just as we helped our grandson learn to walk, so we must help new believers. Modeling the process, celebrating the little victories, and then helping them when they fall is not rocket science, but it does demand intentional effort.
New believers must also learn to talk. My wife and I wagered a bet. Which would our granddaughter, Keira, say first: “grandpa” or “grandma”? We spent so much time coaching her, each of us trying to teach her to say our own names. Boy was it fun! Progress was slow at first, but soon words began to come quicker and quicker. And sometimes not at the right times or in the right ways. But that’s what makes the process so much fun.
One of my regrets when my children were growing up is that I failed to write down all the funny things they said. My oldest daughter Julie, when she was just four years old, came into the study where I was reading my Bible. She asked me what I was reading. Since I was in Hebrews 13:17–19, I told her that it said that we were to “obey our leaders, and not give them grief” (my translation for a three-year-old).
“Do you know what ‘grief’ means?” I asked.
She quickly answered, “Oh, I know!”
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“Well,” she replied, “when Mommy makes me panny cakes (pancakes), she does that! She puts grief (grease) in the pan. So we aren’t to give leaders any grief.”
I still laugh about that exchange of words. Teaching children to talk can be as funny as it is challenging.
In the same way, new believers have to learn to speak—to tell God’s Story and their own story. At the church I previously attended, just prior to baptism, new believers were required to write out their testimony. They were guided in writing out an account of their life before they came to Christ, how they came to Christ, and then describing their life since they trusted Christ. Each person was guided to tell their own story in a creative way, both in a thirty-second format and a longer format. Learning to tell their story, to give their testimony, helped them clarify in their own mind what God had done for them.
New believers also need to be able to understand and to tell God’s story. When they are able to do so, they will be able to share how God’s Story intersects with their personal story. This gives new meaning to their life and clarity to God’s agenda. While this is a lifelong journey of knowing more and more about God’s Story (the Bible), it is critical to know the basic elements of that Story from the beginning of their journey.
Each summer our North American ministry, Sonlife Ministries, brings several hundred students together at an event we call SEMP (Students Equipped to Minister to Peers). We spend several hours each morning teaching students how to summarize both God’s Story and their personal story. We use a simple four-part outline: Creation, Fall, Rescue, and Restoration. After the training, students are sent out on the streets of Chicago to ask people about their story, to share God’s Story, and then weave their personal story of redemption into God’s Story. By the end of the week, students gain confidence and are instructed in how to write letters back home to their friends sharing that story and asking for a time to discuss it more. Every year we see many people come to faith, simply because these students share their stories.
New believers must eventually learn to feed themselves. Can you picture the mess—the mess a one-year-old boy makes when he insists upon feeding himself? I can, because I’ve lived it! Food on the floor. Food smeared all over the plate. Food in the hair. Occasionally some makes it in the mouth.
Maturity is a journey. We all began by making some messes as we tried to feed ourselves. We all insisted upon feeding ourselves, because we watched more mature adults doing it, so we wanted to do the same. In the same way, new spiritual children need to learn to feed themselves. They need to learn to open a Bible, dig into God’s Word, and learn truth for themselves. They need to learn the importance of placing themselves under godly teachers who can feed them the meat of the Word and help them to dig it out for themselves.
Just as none of us like to see an older adult unable to feed themselves, so we don’t want to see our children become the same way. Starting with milk, they need to graduate to the meat of God’s Word. They need to learn good nutrition, taking in what is healthy and not trying to feed their spiritual life on empty calories or junk food. Simple study tools, such as inductive study—What does it say? What does it mean? How do I apply it to my life?—are a good beginning point. Knowing how to use concordances, Gospel harmonies, and online Bible study resources are helpful. Without some guidance, new believers will never mature to the meat of God’s Word.
Finally, new believers must be potty trained. Our granddaughter, Elyse, visited us for a couple of weeks when she was in the process of learning to use the bathroom. When she had a successful trip to the potty, we all ran into the bathroom and clapped, just as we did with our own children. Elyse was so proud of herself. The whole family was celebrating the new lesson she’d learned. No more diapers! Everyone was excited!
One morning, I was awake early reading my Bible on our deck. Elyse came down the stairs to join Grandpa in his daily Bible reading. Still remembering her bathroom from the day before, Elyse let our golden retriever, Lucy, out the back door. She watched Lucy go out to the lawn and go to the bathroom. Elyse asked me what Lucy was doing. I told her, “She’s doing what you did yesterday. She’s going to the bathroom.”
Immediately Elyse ran to the edge of our deck and began to clap for Lucy. “Grandpa,” she said, “come and clap for Lucy.” I laughed, but I went over to the deck’s edge, and we clapped for Lucy!
Spiritual potty training is a simple lesson to learn. When we sin, we need to deal with the sin and get back in the power of God’s Spirit. We need to learn how to live a cleansed life. I will discuss this more in the next chapter, but new Christians need to learn the basic skills of confessing sin, claiming God’s forgiveness, and then walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps one of the most helpful tools here is the simple, “How to Experience God’s Love and Forgiveness” booklet by Campus Crusade. Early in my Christian life, I was trained by CRU staff on how to spiritually breathe—to exhale (confess the sin) and then inhale (claim God’s forgiveness). This simple little tool saved many wasted hours of trying to live in the power of the flesh and freed me to live in the power of God’s Spirit.

PRINCIPLES FOR MINISTRY TO PEOPLE IN CHAIR 2
When working with Chair 2 people, keep these four principles in mind:
1) First, without immediate nurture, new Christians will struggle and, in many cases, they won’t survive. An infant needs the embrace of physical parents. They are totally dependent upon what the parents provide or don’t provide. New Christians are no different. New Christians must become a priority. We cannot just assume they can care for themselves. Just as we prioritize a new baby in the home, so we must prioritize time with new spiritual children.
2) Second, we must give personalized attention to the basics of the Christian life. Simple lessons such as learning our identity, learning how to walk, talk, feed ourselves, and clean ourselves need to be celebrated. We can’t assume new believers will know how to do these things themselves. We have a lifetime to master these basics, but immediate and simple help can be taught early to ensure success. Moreover, as we invest in new believers, we model for them how to care for their new believers as they grow. We tend to duplicate with others how we have been treated. Good nurture of new believers ensures future success with the next generation.
3) Third, we must not forget the importance of our identity in Christ. Without knowing Whose we are, we become susceptible to a wide array of false teachings. A secure identity goes a long way in producing confidence in our walk with God.
4) Spiritual children need a family. It is in a family that values are learned, lessons are taught, and love is experienced. The church family needs to be that family for new spiritual babies. We will discuss this more in later chapters, but nothing is more joyful than to have parents, grandparents, older brothers and sisters, around the same table. The four chairs we’re discussing need to be circled to complete the picture of what God wants His bride to be like. It is when all the ages come together, that we experience the complete joy of being the family of God.
Moving from Chair 1 to Chair 2 is an unparalleled transformation from darkness to light, life to death. As important as that move is, it’s just the beginning. It is important that we work intentionally with new believers to help them move from Chair 2 to Chair 3.




 5. What do you remember about how you were treated as a new believer? Was it a good or poor experience?





 6. What do you believe is the most important first step for new Christians? Explain your answer.





 7. Take a few minutes to identify a couple of new believers you can help grow in the basics discussed in this chapter.






Dann Spader, 4 Chair Discipling: Growing a Movement of Disciple-Makers (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014).