Week 1 check-in
Receiving your new identity

Your role

You are not there to be an expert. You are a fellow disciple who has walked a little longer, pointing a new believer to Jesus. Listen more than you talk. If you do not know an answer, say so and offer to look for it together. Your honesty and follow-through will teach as much as anything you say.

Plan for about an hour somewhere you can talk freely. Coffee is fine. A walk is fine. A video call works if you have to.

Before you meet

• Pray for your friend by name. Ask the Holy Spirit to make the conversation honest and to strengthen their trust in Jesus.
• Read John 1:1-18 and Ephesians 2:1-10 yourself. These two passages carry the week.
• Skim this week’s days below so you know what they have been reading.

Open the conversation

The booklet asks them to bring three things to each check-in. Start there:

• One discovery. Something they learned about Jesus this week.
• One question. Something they are unsure about or want to understand.
• One prayer need. Something they would like you to pray about.

Let them talk first. Write down their question so you can come back to it.

Questions to ask

Choose two or three. You do not need to get through all of them.

• Which day stayed with you most? What did it show you about Jesus?
• On day 1 you finished the sentence, “Because of Jesus, I can come to God as…” What did you write?
• Where do you notice yourself measuring God’s love by how well you are doing? (Day 4)
• When doubts come about whether you really belong to God, where do you look? (Day 6)

What to listen for

Assurance that rests on feelings or performance. New believers often judge their standing by how strongly they feel or how well they behaved this week. Gently turn them back to what Christ has done and to the Shepherd who holds his sheep (John 10:27-30). Assurance rests on him, not on the intensity of their experience.

Discomfort calling God “Father.” Day 5 asks about this directly. For some people the word carries pain from their own family. Do not push past it or explain it away. Listen, thank them for telling you, and if it runs deep, offer to involve a pastor.

An unresolved question. Day 2 asked them to bring a real question to a mature disciple. That may be you. Take it seriously. If you cannot answer it today, say when you will follow up, and then do.

Early discouragement. Some will already feel they have failed: a missed day, an old habit, a sense that nothing has changed. Remind them that grace comes before good works (Ephesians 2:8-10) and that the booklet’s pace is a starting rhythm, not a test.

Practical rhythm. Ask whether they found a time and place that works. If not, help them choose something smaller and more realistic.

Pray together

Ask them to pray first, even one sentence. Many new believers have never prayed aloud in front of someone, so make it easy. Then pray for the need they shared. Day 7 also asks them to pray for you, so give them something real to pray about.

Before you leave

• Set your next check-in for around day 14.
• Offer one small, concrete help, such as a text midweek or sitting together at church on Sunday.
• Do not add homework. The booklet is enough.

This week’s readings