Our first response to Jesus’ call to make disciples is to help people believe in Him. Believing in God directs people upward in their relationship with Him. A personal faith in God is foundational to every other aspect of people’s lives.

Believing in God is a response of the heart to the gospel of Christ. We don’t simply ask people to believe in a “higher power” or a god that they have created in their own imagination. We encourage people to believe in the God of the Bible—the God who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ.

When we call people to believe in God, it is a call to surrender one’s life to Him. Intellectual assent to concept of God—even the living God—is not saving faith. True faith in God is evidenced by taking up your cross and following Jesus.

A great summary of the historical and biblical doctrines of the Christian faith are found at Life Bible Study, which is a publisher that specializes in producing excellent small group Bible studies:

• God is—Only one true and living God exists. He is the Creator of the universe, eternally existing in three Persons—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—each equally deserving of humanity’s worship and obedience. He is infinite and perfect in all His attributes.
• The Bible is God’s Word—The Bible is God’s written revelation to people, divinely given through human authors who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is entirely true. The Bible is totally sufficient and completely authoritative for matters of life and faith. The goal of God’s Word is the restoration of humanity into His image.
• People are God’s treasure—God created people in His image for His glory. They are the crowning work of His creation. Yet every person has willfully disobeyed God—an act known as sin—thus inheriting both physical and spiritual death and the need for salvation. All human beings are born with a sin nature and into an environment inclined toward sin. Only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ can they experience salvation.
• Jesus is God and Savior—Jesus is both fully God and fully human. He is Christ, the Son of God. Born of a virgin, He lived a sinless life and performed many miracles. He died on the cross to provide people forgiveness of sin and eternal salvation. Jesus rose from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and will return in power and glory.
• The Holy Spirit is God and Empowerer—The Holy Spirit is supernatural and sovereign, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ. He lives within every Christian beginning at the moment of salvation and then empowers them for bold witness and effective service as they yield to Him. The Holy Spirit convicts individuals of sin, uses God’s Word to mature believers into Christlikeness, and secures them until Christ returns.
• Salvation is by faith alone—All human beings are born with a sin nature, separated from God, and in need of a Savior. That salvation comes only through a faith relationship with Jesus Christ, the Savior, as a person repents of sin and receives Christ’s forgiveness and eternal life. Salvation is instantaneous and accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. This salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ and not on the basis of human works. All the redeemed are secure in Christ forever.
• The church is God’s plan—The Holy Spirit immediately places all people who put their faith in Jesus Christ into one united spiritual body, the Church, of which Christ is the head. The primary expression of the Church on earth is in autonomous local congregations of baptized believers. The purpose of the Church is to glorify God by taking the gospel to the entire world and by building its members in Christlikeness through the instruction of God’s Word, fellowship, service, worship, and prayer.
• The future is in God’s hands—God will bring the world to its appropriate end in His own time and in His own way. At that time, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth. Both the saved and unsaved will be resurrected physically to be judged by Christ. Those who have trusted Christ will receive their reward and dwell forever in heaven with the Lord. Those who have refused Christ will spend eternity in hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The certain return of Christ motivates believers to be faithful in their daily lives.

A more detailed description of Southern Baptist beliefs found at the Baptist Faith and Message.