A Few Thoughts on Baptism

By -
To come out of our blogging hibernation, I decided to post some thoughts about baptism services.

Recently (sort of) our church has moved the baptism service from the Sunday evening bible study to the Sunday morning worship service. I was just thinking about this today and got pretty excited for several reasons:
  • It involves more people (evening service averages 30-40 people and the morning service 250-300 (rough estimates, no idea really but you get the point)).
  • It is a great, exciting, and joyous time not only for the individual being baptized but also for the church body.
  • It is essentially like the announcing of a birth of a baby or the marriage of two people.
  • It marks a healthy and growing church.
  • It could and should encourage people to share their faith.
  • It is an opportunity to boldly and clearly present the gospel during the worship service.
I just hope people can see these things and be excited about it too.

Comments

Timothy Bisulca said…
I, too, am always excited to witness a baptism. It is a very public proclamation of one’s desire to put off the world and be associated with Christ. When John the Baptist was baptizing people there were large crowds on the shores, many of whom were not believers. It took much courage to step out from the crowd and be baptized. In some ways, I wish there was a way to do more public baptisms. It would be a good witnessing opportunity. As it is, I am glad the baptism is in the morning so the Body of Christ can eagerly attest to a believer’s new birth.
February 2, 2010 at 8:29 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peyton Manning is a Bronco and other reasons I cheer for him

By -
Image
Rick Reilly recently wrote an article for ESPN about Peyton Manning thanking him for the way he’s done things; not showing up in the tabloids, saying sir and ma’am, not getting in fights, to name a few.  Reilly does a great job listing the many ways that Manning is at the very least a great role model for America’s youth.  I like the article and like Manning so I’d love for you to go read it.  I’m sure most people would agree that Manning has shown himself to be a class act throughout his career and especially now as he transitions to the Denver Broncos (as a longtime Broncos fan I couldn’t be more excited; his press conference photo with John Elway and Pat Bowlen is my current desktop background, much to my wife’s dismay). As much as he’s been in the spotlight over the years I really do not know that much about Peyton Manning’s personal life or beliefs.  In a video clip of him talking to kids at a football camp and a small snippet from a radio interview Manning str...
Read more

CNN: I'm a Criminal

By -
Interesting article Putting the article's political agenda aside, this article made me think a lot about how I view sin in my life. Also how when she confronted people with the "So are you" statement, that most people don't view themselves as sinners. I am a criminal. A criminal saved by Grace, and redeemed, but a criminal nonetheless. It also made me think about how we view people in jail or homeless people, or whatever. We tend to view them differently, just because the effects of sin on their life are more "visible", when in fact we all have sinned. For example, using the drugs scenario from the article. How many of us know people who have done drugs in the past, and are no longer users? There are probably some very important people in our lives that fall into that category. How do we treat them? We love them despite their past, don't we? Then think about how we would react / treat someone who we knew went to jail for drug possession. Grant...
Read more