The Best Book to Give Someone Who Just Became A Christian

16 Sep The Best Book to Give Someone Who Just Became A Christian

Someone you know just trusted Christ. Maybe it happened over coffee, maybe at church, maybe in a conversation you weren’t expecting to turn spiritual. Either way, you’re standing there a little unsure what happens next. Super exciting! Praise God!

This article is meant to help you do something more than “call me if you have questions.” Being intentional here with a ‘baby Christian’ is essential to helping them get off to a healthy beginning in their new life in Christ. I want to examine two resources that have been used effectively for decades. They offer an excellent place to start. You can either refer people to these resources, or better yet, buy them the book and offer to meet weekly and discuss through the topics, applications, and pray together.

Growing in Christ (The Navigators)

Here are thirteen short lessons, split into two sets: five on assurance of salvation, eight on the basics of Christian living. Each lesson comes with a memory verse card you tear out and keep, so the study doubles as Scripture memory. The Navigators are know for their high value for memorizing key verses.

What makes it work for a brand-new believer is how little it assumes. It doesn’t presume they already know what “assurance” means or why memorizing a verse matters. It just walks them through it, one page at a time, whether they’re doing it alone with a cup of coffee or sitting across from you once a week.

Use this one when the person is genuinely new, wants something they can work through on their own, and you don’t have a lot of structured time to give them yourself.

10 Basic Steps Toward Christian Maturity (Bill Bright)

Bill Bright built this one out of decades his experience in personal discipleship  through Campus Crusade, (CRU). Ten steps instead of thirteen lessons, covering more ground: assurance, but also the Holy Spirit, prayer, the Bible, stewardship, the church, and witnessing. It was built to be led, not just read.

That’s the real difference. Growing in Christ hands someone a workbook. 10 Basic Steps hands you a curriculum to run with someone. If you’re planning to actually sit down with this person week after week, walking through it together, this is the stronger tool. Handed to someone with no leader and no meeting on the calendar, it can sit on a shelf.

Which One Do You Actually Hand Them

The books aren’t competing for the same purpose. Here is a helpful way to think about each of these resources: Are you going to hand them a book, or give them a book but meet with them weekly or in some regular cadence?

If you’re discipling them yourself, week by week, 10 Basic Steps gives you more to work with and a natural rhythm to follow. If they’re going to work through this on their own, or you’re not sure how much time you’ll actually have, Growing in Christ is the safer handoff.

Either way, I’d always encourage meeting together and trying to avoid handing a book off and becoming unavailable. 1 Peter 2:2 compares a new believer to a newborn craving milk. Newborns don’t feed themselves. Whatever book ends up in their hands, plan on being part of how they use it, even if that’s just checking in every week to ask what they read.

Get Both

Growing in Christ and 10 Basic Steps Toward Christian Maturity are both worth keeping a few copies of on hand, so you’re not scrambling the day you actually need one. I have both copies on my bookshelf. I have found I like to go back and reread them for personal growth as well. The concepts are timeless and always applicable to Christian growth.

Additional Resources on Evangelism

If you are eager to learn more about how to share your faith, I have written a series of articles that have a training angle to them. You’ll find most of them here below. Check out the Storyline Sent App referenced below for a tactical plan.

• How to Lead Someone to Christ — what to actually say and do in the moment someone is ready to trust Him.
• The Master Plan of Evangelism — Jesus’ own method for reaching people, and why it still works.
• Gospel Conversation Starters — practical ways to move an ordinary conversation toward the gospel.
• Evangelism and Spiritual Warfare: Bible Verses — what Scripture says about the resistance you’ll meet when you share your faith.
• Find Your Mission Field — how to identify the specific people God has already put in your path.