Where to Start with a New Christian: Bible Studies for the Weeks After Baptism
Somebody in your congregation was baptized this fall, and on Sunday you'll see them in the foyer. What are you going to hand them? Most of us have watched a new Christian come up out of the water to hugs and handshakes. Some of us have also watched that same person drift away a few months later because nobody sat down with them and opened a Bible.
The research lines up with what we've seen. In a 2024 survey of more than 4,000 Protestant churchgoers, Barna Group found that 64 percent said someone was intentionally walking alongside them to help them grow spiritually. That leaves roughly a third with no one. A brand-new Christian shouldn't be in that third.
What the first converts did next
Luke tells us what happened the day the church began: So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer (Acts 2:41–42). Look at the order. Baptism came first, and devotion came right behind it. Those three thousand didn't wait a year to start learning. They were in the apostles' teaching from the first week.
That's still the pattern for us. A new Christian needs to be taught, needs a place in the church family, and needs someone who'll pray with them. A good workbook gives an older Christian and a newer one a reason to sit at the same table every week with their Bibles open. Here are the studies I'd reach for.
The Discipleship Starter Guide by Caleb Griffith
If you only pick up one study, start here. The Discipleship Starter Guide was written for the weeks right after baptism, when a new Christian is asking who they are now and what they're supposed to do. Its 13 lessons cover who we are in Christ, what a relationship with God looks like day to day, why the church is a family, how to read the Bible with confidence, and how to share Christ with someone else.
What I like most is that it sends the reader to their own Bible. Each lesson gives passages to read and questions drawn from them, and each one closes with something to do that week. All it takes is a pen and an open Bible. It's a 6 x 9 coil-bound workbook for $10, with PDF editions for individual use ($6) or class use ($100).
Caleb Griffith is a graduate of the Brown Trail School of Preaching and Heritage Christian University, and he has ministered for churches near Dallas, Texas. You can find his work in Caleb Griffith's collection.
Do You Know Jesus? Books 1–3 by Kent Heaton
Once those first weeks are behind them, a new Christian is ready for a study that fills in the bigger picture. Kent Heaton's three-part series does that in 36 lessons, twelve in each book.
Book 1 traces God's plan from the entrance of sin through the promises to Abraham and the prophecies of the Messiah. A lot of new converts have never seen how the Old Testament points to Jesus. This book shows them, with charts, historical background and questions along the way.
Book 2 walks through the life and teaching of Jesus. It covers His birth, His miracles and parables, the Sermon on the Mount, the opposition He faced, and His death and resurrection. It runs about 100 pages.
Book 3 turns to the church Jesus built, from the prophecies that looked ahead to it through its establishment. It also takes up morality, temptation, false religion and the end of the world. It's 80 pages, with outlines, fill-in-the-blank exercises and discussion questions.
Each book is a 6 x 9 softcover workbook for $11, with PDF editions at $7 for individual use or $100 for a class. They're written for teens through adults, and they work in a classroom or across a kitchen table. You can browse the whole series in one place.
Kent Heaton is an evangelist and Bible teacher who writes clear, Scripture-centered workbooks for classes and personal study. You'll find more of his titles in Kent Heaton's collection.
Where I'd begin
If I were sitting down with someone baptized last Sunday, I'd start with the Discipleship Starter Guide and its 13 lessons, then move into Do You Know Jesus? Book 1. At a lesson a week, that's about six months together. Those first Christians in Jerusalem devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and somebody had to do the teaching. In our congregations, that's usually an ordinary member who's willing to give an hour a week.
Think about your own church. Who's been baptized this year, and who's sitting down with them?