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.

Baptisms: The Best Way to Begin a Worship Service

This past Sunday we baptized three teens during our early worship service. The two young men and one young lady placed their faith in Jesus Christ and have been working with our Youth Minister for the past few weeks preparing for their baptism. Additionally, some younger youth are currently meeting with our Children's Minister preparing for their baptism in a few weeks. These are exciting times in our church!

A few years ago I was coaching a young bivocational pastor. He was serving in his first church. He had no ministerial training, but he had a heart for ministry and a sense of call on his life. During our coaching relationship it was exciting to see him grow in confidence.

In one of our coaching sessions he said that he wanted to talk about baptisms. He would be doing his first baptism as the pastor of his church in a few weeks, and he had some concerns. Their older church building did not have a baptistery so they were going down to a river that flowed through the town. His questions were two-fold. One, he was concerned because the river wasn't very deep so he was going to be fairly far from the bank. He didn't want the ones being baptized to fall wading out to him. His second concern was he was fearful he would drop his Bible in the river, and it was one that had been given to him by someone very special to him.

After we addressed his concerns he expressed how stressed he felt because he wanted this baptism to be special. When I asked why, he said it was the church's first baptism in 50 years!

As I think back on that conversation I am amazed all over again. It doesn't seem possible that a church could go five decades without seeing anyone come to faith in Jesus Christ and following that with baptism. While most don't go 50 years between baptisms, many churches have not baptized anyone in years.

Most denominations report a decrease in baptisms in recent years. Although various reasons are given it certainly isn't because the fields are no longer white unto harvest. Every church in America today sits in the middle of a huge mission field. The problem is that many of those churches are doing nothing to harvest that field.

The Great Commission is the primary task of the church. If we fail to reach people for Christ, it doesn't matter what else we do, we have failed our mission. It's time many churches made evangelistic outreach a priority again. It's time many churches begin once again to proclaim a clear message inviting people to faith in Christ. It's time we begin again praying for the lost in our communities, in our families, and in our churches.

It was exciting to see those young people last week follow the Lord in baptism. But, I want to see our worship services begin every week with a baptism! Just think how exciting that would be!