“But I am afraid that ... your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”¹

The apostle Paul feared neither the Jews nor the Romans. He did not even fear death. That’s why his statement to the Corinthian believers is especially significant. This courageous apostle said he was afraid that those who had become followers of Christ would be led astray—not from the church but from the “simplicity and purity” of their personal devotion to Christ.

Helping followers of Christ begin their new life is a special challenge in today’s culture. Christians can no longer assume that people in America with whom we share the message of Christ grew up in Sunday school and understand the terminology commonly used in church. People must be reached through their vocabulary, not ours.

In Paul’s letter to the Colossian church, his final instructions conveyed how Christians should relate to nonbelievers, whom he calls “outsiders.” He asked the Colossian believers to pray that he would “speak forth the mystery of Christ” and “make it clear in the way I ought to....”² Paul’s term— outsider—is an appropriate way of describing a nonbeliever’s relationship to the church. For a variety of reasons, most nonbelievers with whom we will share Christ today are further outside the Christian context than ever.

Among the Evangelism Commission’s most requested resources has been follow-up material for new believers who are from a non-Christian background. These resources have been carefully prepared using everyday language to meet that need.

¹2 Corinthians 11:3, NASB

²Colossians 4:3,4, NASB