Getting Your Feet Wet
By Steve Gregg
It’s not unusual for groups to have initiation rituals. Most of us have gone through some sort of initiation ceremony, from joining a club to entering a new profession. I remember (vaguely) becoming a cub scout and raising my hand and taking the cub scout pledge. I don’t remember the words, but I remember raising my right hand to my forehead with my first 3 fingers outstretched in the scout salute and repeating an oath. It was a public ceremony to show that I was willing to be a scout with all of the rights and responsibilities that entailed.
We don’t always think of it in these terms but Christians have an initiation rite as well. It’s called baptism. It is meant to be a public display that we have chosen to follow Jesus and we are willing to have our friends and neighbors see that as well. For those of us in the credo-baptist tradition (believers baptism) it is a gift to new believers to show publicly that we are now a Christ follower. The New Testament tells us that while it is a public display of an invisible truth — the baptism of the Holy Spirit that we receive when we come to Jesus by faith through His grace — it is meant to be a way to demonstrate something that is just as real but unseen. In the New Testament, it was understood that new believers would soon follow their decision to follow Christ by being baptized.
One of the joyful things we get to participate in is watching our brothers and sisters when they get baptized in front of the church. We hold these baptisms on a Sunday morning to make sure the entire church family gets the chance to see and witness this visible display of God’s mercy. On February 26th we will have another opportunity to celebrate this again as a church family as we will be having baptisms as part of our morning worship time.
If you are interested in talking to someone about being baptized, please reach out to the church office to Emily at emily.purcell@creekside.com to let us know. We will have a session a Sunday or two before to explain more fully what this means and to answer any questions. If you are a Christ follower and you have not been baptized, I can’t urge you strongly enough to take the step to be baptized. It is an important step in your spiritual growth and discipleship process. It is also not just a blessing to you, it is also a blessing to the church family.
For those of you who have already been baptized, be sure to be at church that Sunday to cheer on these folks who will be taking this important step of discipleship. How exciting to get to be a part of this!
It’s not unusual for groups to have initiation rituals. Most of us have gone through some sort of initiation ceremony, from joining a club to entering a new profession. I remember (vaguely) becoming a cub scout and raising my hand and taking the cub scout pledge. I don’t remember the words, but I remember raising my right hand to my forehead with my first 3 fingers outstretched in the scout salute and repeating an oath. It was a public ceremony to show that I was willing to be a scout with all of the rights and responsibilities that entailed.
We don’t always think of it in these terms but Christians have an initiation rite as well. It’s called baptism. It is meant to be a public display that we have chosen to follow Jesus and we are willing to have our friends and neighbors see that as well. For those of us in the credo-baptist tradition (believers baptism) it is a gift to new believers to show publicly that we are now a Christ follower. The New Testament tells us that while it is a public display of an invisible truth — the baptism of the Holy Spirit that we receive when we come to Jesus by faith through His grace — it is meant to be a way to demonstrate something that is just as real but unseen. In the New Testament, it was understood that new believers would soon follow their decision to follow Christ by being baptized.
One of the joyful things we get to participate in is watching our brothers and sisters when they get baptized in front of the church. We hold these baptisms on a Sunday morning to make sure the entire church family gets the chance to see and witness this visible display of God’s mercy. On February 26th we will have another opportunity to celebrate this again as a church family as we will be having baptisms as part of our morning worship time.
If you are interested in talking to someone about being baptized, please reach out to the church office to Emily at emily.purcell@creekside.com to let us know. We will have a session a Sunday or two before to explain more fully what this means and to answer any questions. If you are a Christ follower and you have not been baptized, I can’t urge you strongly enough to take the step to be baptized. It is an important step in your spiritual growth and discipleship process. It is also not just a blessing to you, it is also a blessing to the church family.
For those of you who have already been baptized, be sure to be at church that Sunday to cheer on these folks who will be taking this important step of discipleship. How exciting to get to be a part of this!