"Passionately Seeking & Speaking the Love of Jesus Christ"
Dateline: Phillips West
There seems to be a tremendous run of success whenever we bring our portable baptistery outside the walls of the church. More than 20 people have been baptized on the streets and in the church yard.
I am also encouraged by Jim Willard's hot tub baptisms and a story I read about a few dozen baptisms on Easter Sunday (the pastor had prayed for 5, man plans and God laughs). However, it is sad that many of our churches have become comfortable with years of steady decline in numbers of baptisms. Perhaps thinking that it is just the way the world is today. I assure you this is not true. Matter of fact, it seems that if we provide the opportunity to get baptized people will respond (they did for John in the Bible too, didn't they?).
When I was a lost soul, the Lord spoke to me in a very vivid dream that I needed to get baptized. He pressed it on my heart day after day. Finally, I surrendered and was baptized at Lake Nokomis at the annual TCMBA picnic and baptism (an event which no longer exists due to lack of interest from the churches). 12 years later, I am still in the church and have the logo tattooed on my arm for cryin' out loud. I am sure that the Lord id still working on lost hearts and they are looking for a baptistery.
At an event this summer, we presented the gospel through a large Evangecube and I explained to the crowd what it meant to be baptized. As soon as I was finished speaking a woman rose from her seat and headed directly to the baptistery. When asked why she wanted to be baptized she answered, "Because I have been reading the Bible and is says that you should."
Do we have a perfect record of baptisms whenever we bring out the baptistery? No, sadly our streak was broken this summer when an inebriated man responded to the call to baptism by running to the water and splashing himself (also effectively "killing the mood"). Does this mean we will stop bringing baptism to the streets? Absolutely not! I cannot wait to see what God will do in 2013.
