Monday, December 6, 2010

First New Springs Church Baptism Service (as well as mine)

Sunday night New Springs Church celebrated it's first baptism service as we baptized four people who had trusted in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. As a new church we are really at ground zero when it comes to things like having a baptistery, which is fine in the spring, summer, and fall because we can use a lake or a pond; but when it's 30 degrees outside we need a place inside, preferably with heated water. So, in order for us to proclaim the gospel with baptism and for the recent believers to follow the command of our Lord to be baptized we needed to ask another local church if we could use their dunking pool. So, I guess it's only fitting that Duncan Baptist Church allowed us to use their baptistery so we could dunk some people! Thanks Duncan Baptist!!

Speaking on a theological note, we believe that baptism is expected of followers of Jesus; it is an outward mark of the believer wherein they go public with their faith; it is symbolic primarily of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus; it is a proclamation of the Gospel; and it is, in my opinion, an initiation rite into the community of believers wherein the recent followers of Jesus can be encouraged in their Christian walk.

On a more personal and sentimental note, this was the first time I've ever baptized anyone as their pastor. The mock-baptism that you go through in college where you learn how not to drop the candidates don't really count. It was special for me to baptize those making public professions, but it was also sort of nostalgic because I was baptizing them in the baptistery where I was baptized nearly 23 years ago, which was built by my grandpa nearly 40 years ago. But with all of the sentimentalism and nostalgia that have accompanied this particular baptism celebration, I can't help but think of the fact that what we are proclaiming in baptism is so much bigger than any of us.

My grandpa died on the Thursday before good Friday in 2006; I was born on good Friday in April of 1981. Between those two moments of an individuals life we should find contentment in living our lives so as to assist others, from generation to generation, proclaim the glorious name of the One who gave himself for us. Though we will leave this world to go to the next, the Gospel will always be. May our lives be the public proclamation of the Good News that Jesus came to save sinner and give us restoration and may we never forget that it is Jesus who truly matters regardless of the circumstances that we may find ourselves in.