(My response to a question).
God’s calling of sinners to salvation is primary (Matt. 22:14; Acts 2:39), and the sinner’s calling upon the Lord for salvation is a response prompted by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). Faith/belief necessarily precedes calling upon the Lord (Rom. 10:11, 14).
It’s okay to pray for a person’s salvation or for that person, understanding that Christ died for his or her sins and arose from death, to pray himself or herself. After that, he or she is a candidate for baptism and can then take Communion. Also, it is of utmost importance that a new believer is disciplined. That is, be taught the foundational beliefs of Christianity, including the names of all the books of the Bible. This is where most churches fail because they don’t feel it’s necessary. That’s very sad. To me, a church that slights or ignores Christian doctrine is a “dead” church no matter how lively it appears to be. I hate to seem harsh, but that’s a strong conviction I’ve held since my early days in Christ, the late ’60s.
Blessings!
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