A recent discussion that is taking place at the Founder’s blog about children’s baptisteries reminded me of some thoughts that have been twirling about in my head for a couple years. Since becoming a Christian in America is not going to cost you anything socially, not going to be a risk to your life, for most not going to cause any problems within the family, and with so many Americans being born into church -going Christian families, I think some of the awe of baptism has been lost. On top of that, with several denominations practicing forms of paedo-baptisms many Christians do not even remember their baptism.
When we look at baptism in the New Testament we first find John the Baptist calling the Jews to repentance. His baptisms stirred a country. Jesus’ disciples were soon baptizing more than John crossing “barriers” into places like Sychar, Samaria. Beginning at Pentecost baptism became the mark of Christianity around the world. Great stories are told of the price paid by many because of their Christian baptism. Excitement, joy, reverence, hope, and mystery surrounded the event marking it as one of the most rememberable moments in people’s lives.
Today, on the other hand, baptism seems to have lost its wonderment. It seems to be more like a line item in the Sunday bulletin stuffed between the offering and announcements rather than the once in a lifetime act that will become one of the most precious moments that you will ever experience.
Now, I agree with Tom Ascol that we should not turn baptism into something like a circus act. But I do desire as a pastor to give baptism (and the Lord’s
Supper – but that’s a different post) its rightful due. I want to restore its public expression, its emotional depth, and its theological significance.
I have a few ideas, and our pastors are working hard to make it happen. But I wonder about all you guys. Do you feel the same way? Are you doing anything about it?
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
When our older boys made professions to be genuine believers we were very excited. However, we were also very cautious. Not to the point of being discouraging in our caution. But wanting to wait to witness fruit and hear testimony from other of fruit before we jumped into Baptising them. We plan on doing it this summer. Our pastor, my husband and their 2 grandfathers will be doing the baptism. Through this time we have not let them take communion. Something else we take very seriously. Especially since they have professed to be believers, when my husband and I take communion, we take this as an opportunity to talk to them about the seriousness of it. We made the decision that they would not take communion until after they are baptised. As a matter of fact, we will have a communion service at their baptism. To my husband and I, this is what we believe will restore these precious things to their rightful theological significane… and I am sure it will be emotional. How could it not be. Those are my sons. But yet they are mine only for a time.
I think the notion of creating an “experience” out of baptism (requiring it to be “exciting” and “memorable” etc.) are expressions of American culture run amok. I think for John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul, etc. the last thing they were concerned about regarding baptism was whether or not a fire truck was going to blow out confetti or not. It is a beautiful moment, filled with significance, but if we require that it be something exciting and memorable then I’m afraid we’ll end up with the carnival that it has apparently become for some.
But what do I know?
Yes, as I said at Tom’s site:
Christianity plus children equals what? Jesus plus “the little ones” equals what? Can “fun” be part of the answer? I think so. Why not? Is Jesus a old stoic; is He empty of joy and laughter; is He a depressed pessimist; is He a gloomy defeatist? No way. But neither is he a goofy circus clown or the religious version of Barny the dinosaur. I believe firetruck baptistries and confetti canons are over the top.
I did a beautiful, outdoor wedding a few months ago. One knuckle-head arrived in shorts, sandels, and an hawaiian t-shirt. Nothing wrong with his attire per say, but it was just out of place. It was distasteful; it was a distraction; it was just plain silly.
I don’t want my children to think of Christ as a silly children’s hero. I want them to learn from Christ the meaning of true joy, the real source of laughter, and the life-changing importance of baptism. May they not remember that day like another day at Six Flags, but may they remember that day like they will remember the day they got born-again, and the day they got married and the day their first child is born.
Hey Dawgs:
I’m with you on 2-of-3, and I always cringe when people say things like “emotional depth” in reference to church and ordinances. Not because there’s anything wrong in and of itself in “emotional depth”, but because we live in a society of paper-thin emotions which people trade like monopoly money.
There’s also the issue that emotions are lousy validators. They are fleeting and inconsistent.
After all of that, the fire engine tub represents exactly what is wrong with all “church growth” strategies: wrong focus. If you watch that video Tom Ascol linked to, you’ll have to find yourself about to scream “DON’T DO IT!”
There is nothing wrong with updating the devices of instruction: there is something significantly wrong with making them more prominent than the message of the Gospel.
Let me be clear for SBC troublemakers reading: I am sure Dr. Floyd and his staff are aware of and have packaged the actual Gospel in their children’s church digs. The question is if those digs are more obvious than the Gospel, and in that have cheapened what they have called here “evangelism”.
Frank, that is why I used the word “depth” in connection with emotion. John Calvin taught us correctly that there is a deep emotional and spiritual experience in the ordinances. I want for our converts to both understand the theology and experience the rich joy of baptism. As I said, the fun & games approach is ridiculous and “not funny” if you know what I mean.
I would like to say that there is a wonderful way to add real emtional deepth and weight to it, and that is like what we see in some of the new testiment… Give a testimony. I did it when I was baptised and to be honest its a great way to make it mean some thing its your testmony that really adds a serious element, and really encourages the congragation.
I guess I’m old school, Cent (as though you’re not).
I don’t see any of this as productive. This is not using a microphone so that your voice carries. This is not utilizing media (TV, Radio, Cassettes, etc.) for the furtherance of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
This is a downright mockery of the Gospel command to take up the Cross and follow Christ.
We can’t indulge the flesh and crucify it at the same time. We can’t make sinners feel good about themselves by putting on a show for them and tell them that they are sinners in need of a Saviour at the same time. Or we can do it at the same time, but it makes us seem like liars.
If we really believe that people are lost and in need of saving, entertaining them should be the least fo our worries.
I for one am sure that if I were lost and headed to hell and knew it, I would want to cut through the junk and get to the rescuing part.
Furthermore, we do a disservice to our children by pretending that coming before God is all fun and games. God is holy. We must come before him with fear and trembling, not only the lost, but the Christian as well.
That’s my sermon for tonight…
Every eye bowed and every head closed. If you would like…
Ironically I have been at Disneyland all day and am just reading of this fire engine baptistry. After spending all day at the self proclaimed “happiest place on earth” I think even Disney himself would do a double take at a fire engine shaped, confetti shooting baptistry.
Just when I think it can’t get any worse I read something like this. Patterson is right. Some Southern Baptists are some of the worst padeobaptisers of all time.
The funny thing is that it can be rather difficult to get “emotional depth” from a view of the ordinances that, at the conceptual level, is symbolic. Calvin’s view is that in baptism, Christ is spiritually present to the faith of believers (and by converse, we are in His thoughts in a special way). Ditto with the Lord’s Supper. In Zwingli/Bullinger’s view, it’s all just a symbol anyway. In terms of history, then we have Calvin’s view striking a middle ground between Zwingli and Luther. Baptists tend toward Zwingli, not Calvin, in their views here.