The Six Beliefs · 7 of 8
Belief 6 — Where We Take People
The destination — and the order that matters.
We take people to Jesus and His Word; joining the church comes after.
Where are we taking people? Not first to a building or a service — to Jesus and His Word. No one in the New Testament invited an unbeliever to a worship service in order to be saved. We invite people to the Bible, and we let the Word and the Spirit bring them to faith for themselves.
Gathering with the church is good and comes next — as fruit, once someone has committed to Jesus and wants it, never as the front door. The town in John said it best: “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves” (John 4:42). Our aim is people who hear for themselves and become their own spring — who don’t need us anymore.
Scripture — John 4:42 (OTB)
“They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man truly is the Saviour of the world.’”
Recite it: We take people to Jesus and His Word; joining the church comes after.
Reflect & do
Who in your life are you tempted to invite to church before you’ve invited them to the Bible? Invite them to read one story with you instead.
Scripture quotations are from the Open Translation Bible (OTB), used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Practice this chapter
Run a short Discovery Bible Study on this passage — everything this chapter taught, on a real one.