01 - The Call to Follow
Core truth: To be a Christian is to repent, believe, and follow Jesus with your whole life. Not just agreeing God exists.
Anchor text: Mark 1:14-18
This week's step: Tell one person you've decided to follow Jesus, and read Mark 1-3 using the three questions.
This is session one, so it's also where you set the tone for the whole process. Keep it warm. The goal is not to get through content, it's to help them process in their own words what they've actually said yes to. Read the New Believers Course - Leader's Guide first if you haven't.
Connect
Open by hearing their story.
- How did they come to follow Jesus? What's happened since?
You're building trust, and you're listening for where they're starting from, because someone who grew up around church needs a different conversation from someone who walked in off the street last month.
Read
Might be worth reading together.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Dig
Let them answer first. Draw this out.
- What does Jesus actually ask of these two men? What do they do about it?
- Jesus uses three words: repent, believe, follow. What do you think each one means?
- (Repent: change direction, turn around. Believe: trust who he is and what he's done. Follow: go where he goes.)
- Simon and Andrew left their nets. Their nets were their job, their income, their whole life. What's the "nets" example trying to teach us?
- Here's the big one: What's the difference between believing God exists and following Jesus? Can you do the first without the second?
- (Note that many people believe in A god, but most struggle with Jesus, who is the centre of our faith)
Frame
Keep this short. It's simply designed to reframe faith.
A lot of people think being a Christian means agreeing with some ideas about God or ticking a box that says God is probably real and Jesus had some good lines.
- Instead, Jesus asks us to turn (repent), to trust (believe), and to go (follow).
- It's an whole-life change. As in, my life was pointing this way and now I've turned, because I've come to believe Jesus is who he says he is, and I'm going wherever he leads.
We all do these things imperfectly. Repentance isn't a one-off you nailed at the start. It's built into the Christian life. I have to keep turning, keep trusting, keep following, every day, because I keep drifting. That's normal. The Christian isn't the person who repents perfectly. It's the person who keeps coming back.
Land
- In your words, what did you turn from?
- What does following Jesus actually mean for your week, your relationships, the way you spend your time?
Next Steps
- You should tell one person this week that you've decided to follow Jesus. The reactions might not be the greatest, but saying it out loud matters.
- Read Mark chapters 1 to 3 this week. When reading, try answer these three questions:
- What does it say?
- What does it show me about God, us, the gospel?
- What does it ask of me?
This is where you give them the three questions for the first time. Walk through one short passage together so they've done it once before they go home and try it alone. We want to teach them to read Scripture themselves. Start now.
Pray
Pray a simple prayer of turning and trusting, then invite them to pray one line in their own words, even if it's just "Jesus, I'm following you."
- Don't pressure. We need to show that prayer is simply talking to God, not performing.
- Don't let this drift into the abstract. The goal today is for them to name their own conversion, not to give them a definition of repentance.
- If they're anxious about whether they did it "right," reassure them. The point isn't a perfect prayer, it's a real turning, and God receives that.
- Some will have a dramatic conversion story, some won't feel much at all. Both are fine. Tell them so.