What would you do?
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Oh Boy
Posted in: Baptism, Ecclesiology
About the Author
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.
The pastor obviously did not share with this kid the importance of this ordinance beforehand. If that ever happened to me I would honestly not baptize him. I would tell him that he isn’t ready if that is what he feels like the ordinance is…a joke.
unbelievable. Either this kid got paid a lot of money to do this or what seth said above. Perhaps both?
Maybe he was overwhelmed with joy in his salvation and this was a spontaneous display of it.
really? did you see his response after he jumped in? he was proud of his “display” and was laughing…hardly spontaneous…
That was hilarious. The kid is…A KID….it has no effect on his baptism or salvation. He was probably excited to be baptized. I agree w/sojourner…
would not baptize him. Would have his parents and him in my office after church to explain how inappropriate this was, how shameful and disrespectful. I would admonish the congregation for laughing and joking.
Then I would fall on my knees and beg the Lord’s forgiveness as this is a sign I have failed as a pastor to teach those the Lord has place in my charge.
I and my deacons explain baptism and examine those who profess faith to try to see the intent. Especially with children, as many have no idea what they are doing, just that mom and dad got them to agree and walked them down an isle.
“The sky is falling, the sky is falling…”
I completely understand the presence of laughter… shock and embarrassment make little noise. But in the Pastor’s defense, his last statement sure sounded like he was ticked off and did his best to remain composed. I would not be surprized at all if that kid and his parents were called in to the office and swiftly rebuked.
I have thoughts to share with both sides: the side that is completely scandalized without knowing his intentions, and the side that applauds when one person transforms corporate worship into Barnum & Bailey’s circus.
This young man is, to the best of the pastor’s knowledge, a born again Christian. Where is our Biblical mandate to deny baptism to any believing Christian? I know of none. This ordinance is not like the Lord’s Supper, where we have a specific mandate to partake only with a clear conscience. The ordinance of Baptism comes with no such stipulation.
This young man shows tremendous irreverence towards God and disrespect to the Pastor and congregation. It is a sin to disrespect the pastor, completely disrupt the service, and draw attention to oneself and gloat. But we can’t see his heart and we don’t know what he was thinking. Perhaps another young baptism candidate waiting in line behind him dared him to do it, and he did it impulsively. We just don’t know based on outward appearances.
Since we don’t (and the pastor didn’t) know his heart intention… why not just ask him? Therefore my answer to Jason’s question “What would you do?” is to ask the young man “(insert name), why did you do that?”
After asking him, I don’t see why the pastor should not correct him there in front of the congregation. If he receives correction, praise God!, all is forgiven, and proceed with baptism! If not, his confession of faith is questionable and he cannot be baptized at that time.
I am not a pastor and have never baptized anyone so I am not speaking from any noteworthy position here. Just offering these thoughts for you all to kick around.
That’s why we baptized our kids when they were babies!
Mike…nice…
Andrew…good thoughts.
I would though have to question the child further if he were to do that in front of everyone and then gloat and laugh about it. I would feel real uncomfortable baptizing him after that act without further investigation. This doesn’t mean that he isn’t baptized the very next week, but I would definitely want to implore a little more after this.
to answer your question andrew on where do ever deny baptism to a believer? this would be my issue…is he a believer. Does he truly know what it means to be saved, or did he just recite a prayer? I would, as a pastor, no matter how much I believed a child to be saved, have to reconsider if they were to ever do that kind of stunt.
Tony, I wouldn’t be surprised if that kid wasn’t the pastors son. Growing up a PK, I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing that to my dad other then one of us. However, he wouldn’t have taken us to his office. It would have been to noisy.
Pretty sad. The boy obviously didn’t understand the seriousness the moment.
Well put Seth. The cynical side of me says that not much inquiry was done to see if this young man understands what it means to confess faith in Christ. Because so many churches (even without cannonball baptisms) are eager to baptize every child with the promise of a pizza-fellowship party afterwards where all of their friends will be attending. That is cynical of me to think that, and it is not fair to assume, even though most churches follow that pattern.
My earlier comment was made with the assumption that a pre-baptism checklist was done the right way… that all candidates expressed faith and repentance from the heart and in their own words. So if this were someone I believed to be saved up to the point of the *surprise* cannonball, and he received correction, I could not in good conscience deny him baptism.
It is strange – when I think of all the ways I am tempted to sin, doing a cannonball into a baptistery in front of the congregation does not come to mind! But to a 10 (guess?) yr old boy with ADHD who sits still all week long in his feminized public school and isn’t allowed to play dodge ball at reccess… perhaps that is a great temptation for him. He isn’t tempted by lust and love of money the way we adults are.
I’m just saying that if I believed his confession and saw fruit in his life prior to the cannonball, the cannonball would not make me doubt his regeneration. However if he did not accept correction then he’d be outta that water and sitting with his parents!
Sadly, in all probability this guy was asked a few yes or no questions before they rubber stamped his parents’ baptism request. In that case everything I said above would be a moot point.
Well, at least it wasn’t a belly flop.