Sprinkled, Dipped or both?

“Without faith, it is impossible to please God.”  Hebrews 11:6 NIV

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”  Matthew 28:19 NIV

The Southern Baptist church I grew up in was formal.  There was not a lot of running around allowed.  But I remember when I decided to explore an area of the church I was not supposed to be, the baptismal.  I thought I had found heaven itself.  From the sanctuary all you normally saw was a set of red velvet curtains.  When I was a kid I thought they must have been 20 feet tall.

When I accepted Jesus as my Savior I wanted to be baptized, ironically in the same forbidden area I had discovered earlier.  This time it looked different.  It was bigger than it looked from the sanctuary.  Water was maybe waist high to me, but that seemed pretty deep.  From the sanctuary the opening you could see looked high up the wall but you actually had to go down a few steps to get into it.

From the sanctuary you saw only the preacher’s upper body and he was wearing a white robe.  From the baptismal when it was full of water, you could see his robe tied up around his waist so it would not get wet.  That exposed his legs which were in rubber fishing boots.  Standing next to him in the water you were looking down into the sanctuary and you realized that every eye was looking at you.  It was a little intimidating. 

I never thought about other churches and how they facilitated baptisms, until my wife and I were dating.  Her church baptized infants and neither her church nor mine would recognize any other method than the one they used.  She and I were married in the Catholic church she grew up in.  Early in our marriage we attended a combination of a Catholic Church for a period of time, followed by a Baptist Church for a period of time, followed by a period of time when we alternated attending both.  Our results were mixed unfortunately, because we also developed a habit of attending neither for a period of time. 

I was blessed in marriage in many ways, but one I cherish is that I was sitting next to my wife the day she accepted Jesus.  It was during the closing prayer of a church service held at our local high school.  I love that we have that memory.  She was baptized at a local community pool literally across the street from our house.  The church had rented it for a picnic and there were probably 25 people baptized that day.  Our pastor issued the challenge of leading my family to me that day and that included being baptized with my wife.  Somewhere in our house is a picture of Mary and I having just been dipped in the water.  In our arms were two of our babies.  Beautiful.

We had agreed to raise our children in the church and tried to.  Our oldest daughter was baptized in the Catholic Church as an infant.  We watched Jordyn grow up eventually seeing her faith ignite as she got older.  She chose to be baptized when she was 12 years old.  The church we attended at the time did not have a building yet, so we held baptisms at a variety of places, an area lake, a local hotel and even a public pool. 

Jordyn was baptized at Wilson lake.  The preacher described her a free spirit.  It was an accurate description and has since sort of defined the faith walk of our little family unit.  But he also asked me if I wanted to do the honors.  I remember the day well and I felt entirely unworthy of doing it, but heck yes, I wanted to. 

Years later I got to baptize Alyson in a local hotel pool after she had accepted Christ.  She had also been baptized as an infant.  Our youngest was not baptized as an infant but was dedicated in a ceremony at our church.  He has not been baptized as an adult, although I fully believe that he has an internal audience with Jesus that he cannot proclaim in words.  If we tried to baptize him as an adult, it would require sedation. 

Do you remember being baptized?

Did that baptism change your heart, your behavior, or both?

Challenge:  Admitting that none of us knows everything about God’s view of such matters.  In my family alone, we have some submerged as adults, one who hasn’t.  Some had water poured on them as an infant, some were both.  Some were in a sanctuary, one was at Wilson Lake, one at Wilson Pool and one in a hotel pool.  The only common theme is faith in Jesus Christ and “…without faith, it is impossible to please God.”  Hebrews 11:6 NIV