Just Add Water

I’ll never forget the first baptism I ever performed. I was a Youth Pastor in Ohio and had led a Jr. Higher to the Lord by the name of Beau. Shortly after that, this young man was ready to be baptized. I was very excited, but also pretty nervous. After all, we had never practiced “how to baptize people” in Bible College. In the church I pastored, we baptized people going forward (rather than backward). It never dawned on me to be sure that Beau was kneeling far enough in the back of the baptistery so that there was enough clearance for his head.

In my nervous enthusiasm, I brought Beau forward determined to use enough muscle to be sure he made it all the way under the water. Unfortunately, Beau was too close to the front of the baptistery and when I brought him down he hit his head on the edge, resulting in a nice gash. Not to be outdone by Moses, I had turned the water into blood. Beau forgave me and over the years I got much better at baptizing people without causing them physical injury.

I also remember my own baptism. I had trusted Christ to be my Savior at the age of 5 while attending a Child Evangelism Fellowship good News Club taught by my aunt. When I was 8 years old, Pastor Bruce Black baptized me at the Goodyear Heights Community Church in Akron, Ohio. Though that was 38 years ago, I still remember that day as if it were juts yesterday. I also remember being baptized again in the Jordan River on my first trip to Israel. How special it was to publicly identify with Christ in the very river where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.

Along those lines, I am excited that this Sunday here at E-Free we will start a brand new mini-series that we are calling “Just Add Water” as we look together in Scripture and see what the Bible says about baptism. What is baptism? Why do we do baptism? How do we do baptism? Who should be baptized? When should they be baptized? Over this series we will answer these questions and much more. So don’t miss this Sunday @ 9:30 here at E-Free as we start this series.