Baptism
Posted By Aaron Marcelli on March 13, 2010
A couple months ago I was sitting in the back at one of our church’s baptismal services and I realized how much I was enjoying the service. I was there to volunteer and for the BBQ meal that followed, but part way through I realized that perhaps for the first time I was getting a blessing out of watching baptisms.
The service was unique to baptisms I grew up observing because, first of all, it was a baptism service. It wasn’t five minutes at the beginning of the service when people are still finding their seats that a couple people were dunked and everyone clapped as a trained response. There was an entire service taking place just for the focus and purpose of baptizing new Christians. Our church does not have your traditional baptistery, so this type of service for us usually occurs in the creek at an area farm. Due to weather this particular night, a pool was set up in the auditorium and the service was held at the church. Over 500 people showed up for a service that involved no music, no preaching, and no offering! We set a precedence that this is important to us and as a church we will celebrate when people get saved.
Secondly, the baptisms were different. The most obvious thing was that there were more people to be baptized than I had ever seen in a service before. I grew up in churches that found one or two people every month so we could have a baptism. Rock Bridge Church though is an environment where people are being saved and lives are being changed in masses. That’s a God thing! Also, there was real life change going on. It wasn’t 3 teenagers who grew up in Christian homes and have finally been talked into “taking the first step”. There was story after story read of people who God had saved out of the trenches of life and who had come to our church to find acceptance and community. Having their stories read as they were being baptized was also powerful, as compared to the preacher making the confession and the person being baptized nodding as was custom in my background.
I remember sitting in a Sunday night service a few years ago watching someone being baptized and thinking this should be more powerful. This person’s life has been changed! We should have some loud music or something! I’m so thankful to be a part of a church that does celebrate life change. A church where lives are being changed. A church that gets more excited about baptism than a business meeting. I hope more churches will shift their emphasis to the things that matter….like people.
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So neat to hear about! I love services like that too. It is great when the new converts can give their testimonies. The church we are at in Sao Paolo de Olivenca is about to have a service with 8-9 people getting baptized. So neat to see the lives being changed!
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