Newly Christian

 OK, so that's volunteers, what about those who are newly Christian?

The steps of faith after a profession of faith.

1. Preparatory classes for Baptism

Reading James' letter. A session on the Apostles' creed (except 'descended into hell') and three or four pastoral sessions discussing relevant passages from the Bible and prayer.

2. Post Baptism

For the next 18 to 24 months the person is a 'novice', but we don't call them that. During this period they will be asked to accept no significant responsibility for spiritual practice. They might be asked if they would be interested in public reading of scripture and similar.

They will be taken through the Apostles' Creed in detail, with study of the relevant scriptures.

A session  on the Bible: its history, structure and over arching description of the reality we all are in.

Shared reading with the pastoral helper of Genesis, Joshua, Isaiah, Mark's gospel, Acts and Revelation.

These sessions start usually with a Psalm and end with some Proverbs verses, for example, from Proverbs 3, 8 and 9.

We might also work through Koukl's Tactics, Relativism and the Story of Reality, with discussion. We don't agree with all that is written in 'Story' but discuss it anyway.

As soon as possible, we encourage the novice to join a small Bible/prayer group.

At the end we suggest they read (re-read) Wright's Simply Christian and Lewis' Mere Christianity.