A Fun Church Day

We had a very special day at church yesterday. In Baptist churches, and most evangelical churches, baptism is meant to represent something that has already happened in the life of a believer. The Baptist stance is that immersion is the best picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. When a person goes under the water, it pictures His burial. When he or she comes back up, it pictures the fact that the life of Christ has been resurrected in place of the former person. Baptism is a representation of the fact that where there was once a sinner enslaved to his or her sinful nature, the power of Christ is now present, freeing him or her from the power of sin. (I am not insulting my brothers and sisters in Christ who baptize through sprinkling. I'm simply explaining why it is we Baptists perform baptisms the way that we do.)

We saw four people baptized in a local creek yesterday. The idea of an outdoor baptism originated with two of the candidates for baptism. (We don't vote or anything. That just means that they were on "the list" of people who wanted to be baptized. I'm not totally sure why we call them candidates.) I think that it was a wonderful idea!

That's my man!




He almost got swept into the current when he tried to go in too far. Oops!

I realized something as I was going through the pictures. Baptism looks much more violent when looking down on it than it does when you're looking up into a baptistery. I would just like to note that everyone was smiling when they came up.

After the baptism, those who brought sack lunches enjoyed our lunches together. Some ate inside a sister church's fellowship hall (where the creek was located), and some of us ate outside on blankets. It was the perfect day (high 80's) for an outdoor baptism and picnic. What a fabulous day!