Wow!!!

I was nearly moved to tears by the recent Baptism by the Bay 07 at NCC in DC. You've got to peep this video. Now that is what baptism should be!!! I want to be part of that!!

The video captures the emotion and story of life-changing transformation that is only possible from the inside out... through the new birth of Jesus Christ.

And the track by Jeremy Hopkins... "Time Never Let's Go"... is over the top.

Remembering Baptism...

Okay... so I recently shared about our Sunday morning baptismal service... where 4 members of my ministry were baptized (3 by me). Well I can finally share some video of the momentous occasion. Now to give you some context... this was the first time I had ever baptized anyone.

I'll share the video of my introductory comments. If you want to watch the actual baptism's, check out my ministry blog.

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.

My First Baptism

I am going to be involved in my first baptism this Sunday. Not that I am getting baptized... but I will be baptizing three girls in our church on Sunday morning. I sure hope this doesn't happen...


It is a pretty exciting thing for me... because I know these girls stories. God is really at work in each of their lives. Each has been a Christian for a while but have never been challenged or had the opportunity or wanted to be baptized. And God has brought them all to the same place... physically and spiritually... to go through this together.

So I've been thinking and reading a lot about baptism and why we do it. It seems in Scripture that baptism is an expression of repentance and faith in Christ. It is also to be done in the name of Jesus... because it like a transfer of ownership to the one whose name it is done in. Then I came across this verse in 1 Peter...

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 3:21

And I paused... wondering what this says about Christian baptism. And here is where I landed. In this chapter Peter is encouraging a people who are suffering for their faith. He tells them to deal with their suffering with such good conduct that they maintain a good conscience. He then tells the stories of Noah's flood, which saved 8 people from the wickedness around them. But the reason the water saved them is that they were right with God before the water came.

The flood was a prefigure of today's baptism (KJV, NIV, NLT). So today's baptism which is a symbol of the death and resurrection of Christ... saves us. Not that the water washes off our sins... but like the flood it is an appeal from a good conscience... for those were right with God before the flood came. Today... a good conscience rests in faith in the resurrection of Jesus and the waters figuratively save people like the resurrection of Christ actually saves them.

So those who suffer for doing good for Christ should remember their baptism as an appeal from a restored relationship with God. And like the flood saved Noah and family from their generation, so those who suffer for their belief in the resurrection of Chris will be saved from their generation.