Stages of discipleship-Share

Taken from the book Discipleshift

This stage is sometimes called the infant stage. We understand this due to Peter 2:2-3 where Peter describes people who are like newborn babies, craving spiritual milk so they can grow in their salvation. People at this stage are spiritually alive; they have faith and have a commitment to follow Jesus, but that’s as far as they have gone. They may be new believers or long time Christians who have remained stagnant in their faith. These infants tend to lack knowledge of what Jesus taught. They are just simply uninformed and in need of truth. They are a product of the culture they are living in. Their lives are generally all about them and what they think works to satisfy them. They don’t know any better. They have been trained by the world to consume, they look to the Pastor and the church as a service that will cater to there needs.

Typical Infants in our lives are naturally messy, loud and need lots of care. We expect them to need attention. We know it will take time for them to grow and mature and we know it will take our time and patience to help them mature. So we are patient as they mature.

When people are spiritual infants, the things they say will express the state of their heart. They may say phrases like:

I need to go to church regularly? I have never heard that before.

I need to pray regularly and read the bible? How do I do that?

I did not know that was in the bible?

I always connect with God in the outdoors, I don’t need church.

Tithing? What’s that?

I know Jesus is God but is not karma cool?

As you can see they need someone to care for them and feed them so they can grow. They will eventually learn to feed themselves but currently do not know how. They need the personal attention of a spiritual parent. They need to develop new patters as they learn to live a new life as a follower of Jesus.