I just got out of two extremely wonderful meetings, which were ones which make me remember why I am in vocational ministry and the types that encourage me to keep going when often it is difficult.
The first meeting was with the volunteer team who is coming up with what our church will do with local social justice and compassion issues in our community. They have been brainstorming ways to be involved in the community in areas ranging from elderly homes, AIDS patients, homelessness, helping single mothers and children in need, assisting the mentally ill and several other ideas. They have been researching where in our community we can get involved and their passion was extremely evident and enthusiasm incredibly, incredibly high. We are meeting again in 2 weeks to have them narrow things down more to what we will be doing later this year as a church. They are pretty much making the decisions on this for the whole church, and I could sense their ownership and seriousness they have as they pray and research and are making the selections of what we will do.
The second meeting was with two of the four people we are baptizing this Sunday. I met with them right after the other meeting.When we were meeting at Santa Cruz Bible Church the first two years of our church we had baptisms happening pretty regularly as in that facility had a sunken in baptism/hot tub type of a baptismal in the stage area. So it was a pretty easy thing to do.
However, two years ago, when we moved to this facility (which is a 1938 Presbyterian church building) there is only a baptismal font in the building. So we have been wanting to have immersion baptisms and started looking for how to do it in this building. We have done baptisms at the beach, which are wonderful. But when you do baptisms off-site, it is a smaller group who is there and we have historically seen how when modelled and seen by the whole church in a worship gathering that it is a great way to be teaching and showing baptisms which lead to others deciding to be baptized too. So we wanted to be able to baptize right in the worship gathering, instead of off-site.
Cliff, who is one of those being baptized on Sunday, helped me look for a baptism tank or something to use. He looked at a metal trough of some sort. But it would be hard to move when filled with water and also we would have to figure out how to empty it and have it at least warm. So then on the internet, I found a portable baptism. At first I thought it was kind of hokey, but as I read about it and saw it - it seemed to make so much sense to get one. It has a heater, it can be assembled in 15-20 minutes, it can be torn down and stored in sections pretty easily, and it has a pump to remove the water afterward. On the phone I asked Cliff about colors to help me pick one and we got a brown looking one. Most were sort of 1980's blue colors.
Interestingly, I was doing an image search for "portable baptism" for this blog entry on Google and when I did I just saw a photo of Mark Batterson in the mix and then it turned out that Mark blogged about baptisms and sure enough - there was the same baptismal we just got. He used it at National Community Church in Washington DC. But in his blog he said how he covered it with black cloth, as the colors are a bit odd. So, I felt better and not so uncomfortable seeing Mark also using one of these portable baptismals
I will post about the baptisms with some photos after this Sunday. But it is kind of funny looking at the ads for this that say "Easy to Set Up" and "Ready in Minutes" and "Convenient to Store". But for those in situations like we are or like Mark is at National Community Church - having a baptismal we can set up, tear down and conveniently store is actually a big deal. And all I know is that because of this portable baptismal we are now baptizing 4 people this Sunday in the worship gathering.
I just finished meeting with two of those being baptized and all I can say is that God changes lives. What I love about baptisms is that we have the people getting baptized share their story. I sat through two incredibly moving stories of how God has given hope and drastically changed two people's lives. I will blog more about that after Sunday.
Two of those we will be baptizing were never part of any church prior to Vintage Faith Church. The other two had some church experience growing up, but had left the church for many years. But then through different circumstances have recently given church another try and heard about Vintage Faith and became part of church and involved in the mission. I have met with all 4 of those getting baptized and hearing their stories is what brings me hope and knowing that God does change lives. The Spirit is drawing people to repentance and change and hope and new life.
These meetings are the ones which enable me to carry one when depressed or wondering why we are doing what we are doing. I feel like a little boy with this portable baptism thing, as it just arrived today and I can't wait to open it and see how it will work. We are doing a trial set up tomorrow and then I can't wait till Sunday to the baptisms and the 4 of them sharing how God changed their lives.
