New Life Coaching *Part 1
One thing I love to do when summer arrives is walk or bike outdoors: especially with family.
My wife and I started our day walking.
Last week, I walked the shore with my son and his wife. Good day to
bring along a camera! Lots of gulls n’ geese. What is it they call baby
geese? Goslings, I guess.
“Swimming Lessons”
A big part of disciple-making is new life coaching.
The message of John the Baptist was a no-nonsense call to come clean
with God. People of strict religious background, or hardly any. Didn’t
matter. John strongly persuaded people to prepare for God’s future:
God’s clean-up campaign soon to begin. Jesus taught that the future God
was bringing was already at hand. He, too, called us to turn from sin to God. Believe the gospel. Embrace Life by embracing all that God has done and is doing through His Beloved Son.
By His teachings and example, Jesus coached
men and women in their new life. He was always urging people to a love
for God and others that they couldn’t whip up on their own. They needed
Him. If this life was possible, it was possible through the power He
gave. The life He taught. The life He lives through us.
When the apostles wrote letters to the earliest churches, they did new life coaching.
True, they expounded deep truths of the faith. They taught doctrine:
but doctrine was always tied to how the church is meant to live. What
was “in character” for one who is following Jesus? What is out of
character?
As part of a New Members’ Class, I used to teach a session called, “What Just Happened to Me?”
- A New Birth and a New Me.
- A New Father, a new family, a new home.
- A New Heart and a Renewed Mind
- Living the New Life with Jesus (and others who are learning from Him.)
These are truths we want to visit with open Bibles, and with open lives; open
to others, that is. The one who is new in the faith needs spiritual
brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles. We need to encourage them to join
us in social settings, and in helping roles where they can experience
the difference–and talk freely about their questions, struggles, hopes,
and the daily stuff of their lives.
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