Baptism is a surprisingly hard topic. We have many people attending Grace Church who come from different faith backgrounds with different traditions. Some of these traditions involve baptism, both sprinkling and immersing, especially as an infant. As the pastor of Grace Church, I don’t want to detract from the significance that a previous baptism may provide to someone. This is an issue Thomas Holmes, one of our elders, wrestled with. When a priest or pastor you respect, and the parents and/or grandparents you love, have instilled in you great value from an action they did to you, it is only normal to value it as well. In fact, it almost feels disrespectful to do otherwise. Baptism is important, and to have someone imply that the experience you went through, done by people you trust and love, “was not good enough” can seem hurtful. Thomas had been baptized as a baby and for years felt the tension some of you may feel now. If you’d like to talk to Thomas about his journey, he would love to take time to talk to you as well.
What we want you to know is this: When we at Grace Church talk about the importance of baptism as a believer, we are not asking you to disrespect anyone or any event from your past. What we are asking all of us to do is consider is, “Have I been obedient to God by choosing to be baptized as He commands me to do and in the way Christ illustrated?” We know Christ was baptized by going down into the water, but not for the forgiveness of sins because He was sinless. Baptism was used by Christ to identify Him as God’s Son, not to make Him God’s Son. The Gospels describe baptism for believers in the same way. It identifies us as Christ-followers; it doesn’t make us Christ-followers. Have you, as a Christ-follower, been identified with Him in this way?
Maybe this is something you’ve already wrestled with, and you want to take the next step. On March 29, we are planning a Baptism Sunday during the morning service. If you would like to be baptized, please reach out to one of the elders or me as soon as possible. Our constitution requires a meeting with the elders before baptism, and we want to make sure we have time for everyone to meet before the March 29 service.
We aren’t going to force anyone to be baptized at Grace Church. We don’t have the authority from God to do that. We also can’t force anyone to be saved, nor is there an action we can do that will get someone to heaven whether they want to go or not. What we can do is teach what the Scriptures say and give the opportunity for people to respond.