There is nothing quite like a baptismal service! Celebrating new life in Christ and seeing people’s obedience and desire to follow Christ are great things. We had a wonderful time tonight!
Dave spoke from Matthew 28:19 on the subject of baptism. Some churches baptise babies, but in our church we baptise believers. He dealt with some frequently asked questions about baptism and also asked ‘what does baptism do for us?’ Baptism ultimately is a symbol of Christ’s death and resurrection (see Romans 6). It doesn’t make us a better person or have any magical powers; what it is is a symbol that when we accept Christ’s sacrifice as the means by which we are reconciled to God, we are dead to sin and can rise from the water just as He rose from the dead, a new creation. We obey Christ’s command to be baptised and declare publicly our allegiance to Christ. Sin has separated us from God and the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23). We simply have to sink our pride, admit we can’t do it on our own and surrender the ownership of our lives to God.
We moved some of the older chairs from church to Beever Street:
Then we filled up the baptismal tank again:
Lorraine gave her testimony, explaining how her daughter’s baptism two years ago had been the start of her own journey to faith:
Then she was baptised:
It was wonderful to see three generations of a family being baptised. Here, Emma reads verses from James 5, watched by her mother, whose turn was coming!
Before…
… and after:
Karen reads from the Apostles’ Creed:
and is baptised:
Finally, her husband, Paul, was baptised:
After the service we had some food. Emma decided to take advantage of the wheelchair on hand:
Debbie volunteered to be photographed like this!
We are grateful to all who helped to make this a wonderful service and pray especially for those who were baptised as they continue to learn more about the Lord and grow in grace and in a knowledge of the Lord Jesus, as well as for all those in the service for the first time.