Baptisms

This past Sunday I was privileged to witness a young boy's baptism. A friend of mine, the boy's grandfather, invited me to attend the service where the young man was going to be baptized. What a joy to see a young person give his life to Jesus Christ!

While baptism has no saving power, it is a witness to a change that has occurred in a person's life. It tells the world that this person's life has been changed by the power of the Holy Spirit as that person has committed his or her life to Christ. The Great Commission tells the church that its mission is to help people make that commitment, baptize them and help them grow as disciples of Christ.

For some reason, the church is not doing as well in fulfilling the Great Commission as it once did. No doubt the changes that have occurred in our society has affected our work in this area. Many people have abandoned the church in their search for God. They see the church as irrelevant to that search, and even many who do attend church see no value in church membership or have little interest in what they see as church rituals such as baptism.

All the blame cannot be placed on societal change however. How often do you hear a sermon on the importance of baptism in many churches today? When was the last time you heard what baptism meant, what it signified? And, how many churches are focused on fulfilling the Great Commission? Many churches are quite active in providing social services such as feeding the hungry, providing coats and shoes and student backpacks, and other important ministries, but how often do any of those activities lead to any type of evangelistic outreach?

I once talked with a pastor who told me their church had not baptized anyone in 50 YEARS! He was excited that they were baptizing two young people the following Sunday. Wanting to make this a special occasion, the baptism occurred after the worship service in the river. As the church proceeded to march down to the river, people in the town began to follow to see what they were doing. It turned out to be a great outreach event for the church. But, what was this church doing for 50 years? Certainly not fulfilling the one mission God gave the church.

For years the largest Protestant denomination in the US has seen their baptism numbers slip from the preceding year. I'm not pointing fingers because I would imagine almost every denomination would report the same decline. The church must get back to doing the first thing if we expect to have any impact on our world.

Evangelism, baptism and discipleship are not something we do if we can fit it into our schedules. These make up the Great Commission and represent the God-given mission of the church. If we fail at these we have failed as a church. All the food we pass out, all the shoes we collect and everything else we do will be of little value if the eternal souls of those we are helping are lost.