Understanding Baptism process
At Family Church, we want to help you take your next step with God! Baptism is practiced differently in many Christian traditions and is not an act of bringing someone salvation; therefore, we embrace the diversity of those expressions at Family Church. This means you could see some infants dedicated and others baptized. You could see young children baptized by immersion as well as adults. Our goal is not to create stumbling blocks for people to take their commitment to Jesus to another level; instead, we want to be a trampoline to spring them to new heights!
Infant Dedication
As Christians we are called to recognize that children belong first and foremost to God and are given by grace as gifts to parents. Parents not only have the awesome responsibility of caring for this gift. We are told in I Samuel 1 that Hannah presented her son Samuel to the Lord. In Luke 2:22 we read that Mary and Joseph brought their baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem in order to present him before the Lord. In the same way, parents today bring their son or daughter, presenting first themselves and then their child before the Lord our God.
INFANT BAPTISM
Parents are entrusted by God and in baptism they are demonstrating a commitment to Him. You are committing and seeking to do everything that is in your power, as God gives you wisdom, to see that your children grow up to respect and honor God and to love and serve Jesus Christ. This “setting apart” is an act, by you the parents, a powerful declaration of your acknowledgement of your stewardship over God’s children. We see entire households baptized in Acts 16:15.
Believers Baptism
Christian baptism is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior and the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Baptism in the New Testament was related to the ministry of both John the Baptist and of Jesus. John's baptism was symbolic of one's repentance from sin and of willingness to participate in the kingdom of God (Matt. 3:6-8; Luke 3:3-16).