In this video, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson provides counsel to new Christians who are seeking to grow.
What should a new Christian focus on as he seeks to grow? I think probably the best counsel I could give would be: Focus on the basics. I remember when one of our boys was beginning to play golf, I bought a book written by the great American golfer, Jack Nicklaus. He said, at the beginning of every golf season, he would go to visit the man who had first taught him to play—a man called Jack Grout, I think his name was. And he would go and meet him at the appointed hour with a golf club in his hand. And even when he was the greatest golfer in the world, he would say, “Mr. Grout, teach me how to play golf.” And he would do that just to make sure that he had the basic foundations in place. And what that means for us when we are young Christians is, first of all, we need to get to know God’s Word in Scripture. So it’s very helpful to us to find some kind of plan that will help us read through the Bible regularly. And that’s number one.
Coupled with that, and in some ways feeding that is to belong to a church where God’s Word is preached and the Scriptures are expounded. We ourselves often learn how to read the Bible from the way in which the Bible is taught to us. So, belonging to a church where Scripture is preached is absolutely central.
The third thing I think, is to really get involved in the church. If you’re a young person, try and spend some time with older Christians in the church. All you need to do actually is to sit down beside them and say: “Well, how did you get here? What’s your story?” And you probably learn quite a lot spiritually as they tell you their story. At my age now, I realize older people actually like talking about their lives to younger people. They’re glad if somebody finds them interesting. And you can learn a lot of the Lord’s ways from what older people will tell you.
The next thing, I think, is, in that church, to look for ways you can serve. If there is anything you see you can help with, just do it. And I think you’ll find that the people in the church will begin to recognize perhaps the gifts that the Lord has given to you, and they’ll make space for you to use those gifts. And then of course, you want—I think we all want—to learn to pray, and it’s really helpful if the church prays together. That’s a real encouragement to us. And if you are in a church where the people meet for prayer, if you possibly can, join them. Those are very simple things. They’re not rocket science. But as Jack Nicklaus said, if you’ve got the basics in place, in a way, everything else will begin to take care of itself.