Baptism

Our Understanding of Baptism

We believe baptism is an act of God’s grace. That means God doesn’t wait on us to have it all figured out before God loves us, forgives us, and welcomes us into his family. There is never a time in our lives when we will have it all figured out regarding God.

At baptism, we celebrate three sets of promises.

The first are God’s promises to us that we are loved, forgiven, and adopted into the family of God.

The second are our promises to God, to turn from our sin and toward the path of God for our lives, to accept our responsibility to partner with God in bringing the Kingdom of God to earth as it is in heaven, and to become faithful followers of Jesus, putting him at the center of our lives, and seeking to live our lives as if Jesus himself were living our lives in our place.

The third are the promises of the whole church to pray for us, walk with us though the ups and downs of life, and to teach us, by their example, what it looks like to be followers of Jesus.

Because baptism is primarily an act of God’s grace in our lives, we don’t believe God is limited by our limitations. We baptize infants, children, youth, and adults, recognizing that all of us need God’s love and grace. For infants and children who are not yet ready to make a commitment of faith for themselves, parents make vows to raise them in such a way that at some point in the future, they will stand before the church and confirm the promises that their parents and their church made on their behalf. We baptize by sprinkling infants or by immersing older children, youth, and adults in water, again recognizing the limitlessness of God, that God is able to work at any time, in any place, and through any amount of water.