How to Become a Follower of Christ

Three different paths lead a follower of Christ to walk with our congregation: as a new believer; from other Baptist congregations; from other Christian traditions. Here's a brief description of each.

If you have want to know more about what it takes and what it means to become a Christian believer, here's a brief description of how many of us became believers and followers of Christ.

Desire. The process begins with a desire. A person feels drawn to God or maybe attracted to the idea of a spiritual journey. Maybe the interested person begins to seek answers to troubling questions, or wants to satisfy certain doubts. Actually, such desire demonstrates that the journey has begun, because God is at work.

Realize at this point that God cultivates the spiritual desire. We do not come to God alone. We do not manufacture the desire, whether in the form of questions, or doubts, or a gnawing or unfulfilled emptiness. You may see something in believer’s life that you don’t understand, or something that you wish you possessed. You may possess a gnawing hunger for things spiritual that calls to be fulfilled. God uses all of these avenues to cultivate desire in a person’s heart. A person may respond by seeking or trying to "scratch that itch".

Entering the Life of Faith. The life of faith is simple — it's not easy, but it's simple. Jesus brought Good News from God. That message is preserved in the New Testament. Here's a brief outline of the main points:

1. We were created for relationship with God. When God created humans, we were stamped with God's image. In the very least that means we were created to connect to God and find our fulfillment in that relationship.
2. We veered from God's intention for us and stand disconnected from God. The Bible records several ways of explaining this disconnection, but it's called sin, often meaning a life that misses the mark toward which it was aimed, as an arrow may miss the target toward which it was aimed. The separation is called death, referring to spiritual death, or being disconnected from the source of our life in God. Disconnection proves to be spiritually and eternally lethal, no matter how described. A person may be physically alive, but is spiritual dead because of the disconnection with God.
3. God pursues us with the intention of reclaiming us from eternal separation. The Bible records the actions of a Creator who cares so much for us that God stepped into history and the created realm through Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was born of a human mother, but had God as father. Jesus lived the completely connected life—lived as a human who remained totally connected to the God or as God intended from the beginning. By voluntarily submitting to undeserved death on a Roman cross, Jesus absorbed all the consequences of our eternal separation. Finally, Jesus was raised from the grave to new life as a guarantee of God’s promised new life for all who believe. His life, death, and resurrection forged a new way of relating to God: the way of faith.
4. GOOD NEWS: God offers a new relationship—connection—as an unearned, undeserved gift to all who will accept. This new relationship is founded on God’s grace: God grants a new relationship that has not been earned or deserved by one’s good deeds. Good news, right? We don’t have to find God; God pursues us. We don’t have to meet God’s standard for relationship; God already met that standard in the life of Jesus. So, what do we do?
5. We humbly surrender, obediently trust, and faithfully follow. Our part in moving from seeker to disciples first involves humbly surrendering to God’s invitation. To start, acknowledge that God humbled Himself in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection so that we may have a new relationship. In response, we humbly return our lives to God who offers new life to us through Jesus life, death, and resurrection. We voluntarily offer ourselves to worship and serve God.
   
   When we surrender ourselves into the God’s safekeeping God’s Spirit brings to us God’s life. That’s right, God’s Spirit moves into the life of the new believer to begin the transformation process that allows one to think and live as a maturing follower of Christ. Most disciples recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit as a new sense of joy and budding new desires for things spiritual. On occasion the abiding of God’s Spirit is accompanied by rather unique "signs", but the absence such signs may occur more frequently than their presence. In either case, the new life in Christ begins.
   
   Next, we disciples obediently trust whatever God says. God speaks to us in various ways, but the most reliable means for us to understand God’s desire is found in the Bible. So, when we read in the Bible that we are supposed to forgive one another, we obey. We obey because we trust that God tells us what is best for us; therefore, we believe forgiving must be best for us and all around us. We obey because we trust that God will also help us forgive—remember that the Good News is simple, not easy! It’s simple to hear the call to forgive, but hard to die to our pride and allow God to give us the ability to seek reconciliation.
   
   At just such a point God, the Holy Spirit, enable us to do what otherwise we cannot: forgive others as God, through Jesus, forgives us for breaking relationship. God’s own Spirit enables us to die to our pride and our "rights" in order either to seek or to grant forgiveness. God helps us to do the simple, but difficult, things necessary to live the believer’s life, and in this life is our joy and peace—a bit of Heaven on earth.
   
   We continue, as one Christian writer called it, "a long obedience in the same direction." We become believers. We have a new Godward direction in life—the path of faith. We experience a new purpose and power in life—following Jesus’ path and allowing God’s Spirit to give us the strength to keep moving, obediently.

Joining with other Believers. Once a person makes the all-important decision to trust, obey, and follow Christ, he or she finds a group of believers, a community of faith, with whom to worship and serve. A new believer unites with DBC by discussing with the Pastor, or another leader, the desire to unite. Then the new believer steps forward after worship and presents himself or herself as a candidate for our fellowship, at which time the congregation welcomes the new believer. Soon after being officially welcomed into the congregation, the new believer will experience baptism by immersion. Finally, the new believer keeps walking—grows and matures spiritually. Specifically, each new believer finds a place of service in and through the congregation as a very important part of trusting, obeying, and following Christ.

Just come and see! Maybe you are just interested now in learning more about what it means to follow Christ. Great! Come walk with us a while. We welcome all who wish to discover more about the Christian spiritual path.

If after walking with us for a while and learning more about what it means to be a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, you desire to move from interested seeker to disciple believer, then any number of DBC believers stand ready to share with you our experience and to walk with you through the process of beginning your spiritual journey with us.

If presently you are member of another Baptist congregation, then you likely know the process—simply present yourself after worship, expressing a desire to join with DBC on the journey of faith, and the congregation will affirm you as a new member, pending receipt of a "Transfer of Letter" from your former congregation. The "Transfer of Letter" primarily serves a record-keeping function for your former congregation so they know you continue the journey and that it’s time for them to remove you from their records.

If presently your church family is a Christian tradition other than Baptist, the process is similar. First, tell the Pastor that God has led you to unit with DBC on the spiritual journey. He will explain to you this process in more detail. Primarily, the congregation looks for only one thing: assuming you are already a believer, we seek only to know if you have experienced baptism by immersion.

We do not consider immersion necessary for one to enjoy right relationship with our God, but we believe baptism by immersion is a very significant sign of faith that holds tremendous spiritual significance. We do not judge other baptism traditions, but for us immersion best expresses the death, burial, and resurrection with Christ, and we desire for no one to miss the experience.

If you have been immersed in your present tradition, or previously at any time, we accept that experience. If you have not been immersed, we ask for the privilege of sharing that experience with you.

Either way, after talking with the Pastor, you present yourself to the congregation at the end of any worship service, the congregation either affirms you on statement of your faith, having been previously immersed, or affirms you on statement of faith, pending your immersion.