WHY I WROTE
SO, YOU’RE A CHRISTIAN!
NOW WHAT?

      Thank you for visiting my web site. Let me explain why I wrote my twelve-week Bible study, So, You’re a Christian! Now What?

      I became a Christian at nineteen. For years I searched for a book to take me step by step in spiritual growth and service for Christ. Not finding what I needed, I determined one day to write the book myself. In the meantime, I married a minister whose sermons helped shape my understanding of the gospel.

      Recently, a new Christian named Cindy rushed to me following a worship service. Cupping her hand over my ear, she whispered, “Catherine, what country do Gentiles live in? I’ve never heard of those people.” My husband had referred to Gentiles during his message. I explained that Gentiles are non-Jews.

      “You and I are Gentiles,” I said. She still looked bewildered.

      “Will you teach me a Bible study, one-on-one? I’m just a baby Christian,” she confessed, gesturing helplessness.

      I promised, more to comfort her than to assess the scope of all we were considering.

At that moment I didn’t dream that “So, You’re a Christian! Now What? would become the result of our sessions together.   

      “How long will you teach me?” she prodded.

      “Until you can walk alone spiritually. I won’t ‘leave you on the spiritual delivery room table.’”

      Cindy was attractive and married with children. Regular in worship, she engrossed herself in my husband’s sermons, taking notes and searching the Scriptures. That day she came to grips with her awkwardness. Without Bible knowledge, Cindy was puzzled by the seeming complexities of the new life in Christ she had so recently and joyfully embraced.

      “Cindy, do you know what makes the Old Testament old and the New Testament new?” I asked. She answered with a blank stare.

      “What does testament mean? Can you define gospel?”  She responded in silence.    

      Had Cindy been a physical baby, she would have been nurtured, fed, clothed, guarded from danger, and steadied whenever she appeared ready to stumble. That day God assigned me those same responsibilities for this spiritual newborn.

      Where does one begin teaching a spiritual baby who knows nothing? I wondered.

      “Teach the same things a physical baby must learn,” the Spirit whispered, and the table of contents for So, You’re a Christian! Now What? began to unfold.

I would include aspects of the physical life and relate them to the spiritual life, beginning with being born and born again (into new life in Christ), and receiving a name (Christian).

      Just like growing physically, Cindy would learn to trust (assurance of salvation), communicate (in prayer and quiet time), feed herself (on God’s Word), and dress herself (in God’s armor). She would bear the family resemblance (the fruit of the Spirit), assume her role in the church family (using her talents and spiritual gifts), and observe the family rules (what God expects).

      She would find her hands and feet (in service for Christ), learn to share her faith (the personal testimony), and learn to walk (the narrow road that leads to life). Finally, she would learn to talk (the Christian language). If I could have had this final lesson when I was a new Christian, it alone would have been worth the price of the book! 

      What Cindy trusted me to write upon the blank pages of her spiritual life during the months that followed became the lessons of So, You’re a Christian! Now What?—a Bible study for those who want either to establish themselves in the faith, or revive their initial love for Christ. The reader learns to live the spiritual life in a fleshly body God’s way.

      Pastors and church leaders will find the study a great tool for mentoring new Christians, in small groups or one-on-one. Are you ready? Let’s start growing!

                                                                      —Catherine Painter