Baptismal Reflection

Some reflections from our baptismal service this past Sunday morning.

It was such a privilege to be involved. I felt alive. It is one thing to watch a baptism and another to be in the water and active in the process. It was spiritually electric.

And since it was my first “official” baptism…I goofed… twice. When I was baptizing my Nancy I got lost in the transition from story-to-dunking and “lost my lines”. We all laughed and moved on… I hope Nancy forgives me. Then when all was said and done I tripped on my way out of the tub. Talk about youtube footage. I hope that made it real.

What made it special was the chance to share the story. Each person had an experience where God became a reality to them and they began a relationship with Jesus. The stories helped to celebrate the unique way in which each of us finds Christ. We used to say in sales facts tell – stories sell. Maybe in church we should say celebrate stories not baptisms.

Another thought about baptism is to focus on the gospel. I mean point people to Jesus. How He in his goodness adopted us, forgave us and made a way for us to be right with God. A man-centered focus of baptism, robs God of his glory. I think we really did this on Sunday.

I also think it is important to include the community. For God is working in an individual’s life through the collective life of a local body of believers. So we baptized on Sunday… because that is when our community gathers. We highlighted groupLink and small groups, because those are the environments where some of the people were challenged found there people and their God stories took off.

And I’d like to suggest that we involve the characters. What I mean is getting people involved in the actual baptism who were key in them finding Christ. I’d even say if Cory invites Bob to small group… and Bob finds Christ in small group… then let Cory baptize Christ. The bible gives us that freedom… and it celebrates missional characters in the story of God.