YOU WERE BAPTIZED WHERE?

Terry O’Casey

(This article first appeared in the Christian Standard a few years ago)

Its all happened at one time or another in our baptistery. We have had the “Instant Baptism” when someone steps down into the baptistery only to find that the algae has bloomed during the week. Now you see ‘em, now you don’t as they SLIP beneath the watery grave. There have been the near “Scalping” baptisms. Joe, 6’8” being buried AND BRUISED with Christ as his head catches the edge of the 6’ long baptistery. There have been, with all due respect, the “O My God” baptisms. One of the elders would empty the baptistery so no children would drown, only to forget to refill it for the next Sunday. You begin to refill it during first service. By second service the water is 2’ deep. As you bury someone in Christ, you dip down so far that the water flows INTO the front of your pastoral waders. As you stand up, and the cold water goes down…the front, you spontaneously lead the people in the “O my God” prayer! To this we could add the floating baptismal gown dilemma. Some modest person steps down into four feet of water, while the UNWEIGHTED hem of the robe remains floating somewhere near their navel! Or the tight-budget baptismal gowns made of one layer where one truly one must repent AFTER baptism, for their end is in sight.

Baptism is an awesome defining moment identifying one with Christ. We all want to make that event, rooted in Christ, a beautiful remembered act. For Seaside Christian Church one of the ways we have done that is by having most of our baptisms outside. By the way it does rain 80 to 100 inches a year here on the coast of Oregon!

3 years ago we began building a replica of a turn of the century lighthouse for our sanctuary. As we approached completion of the Historical lighthouse, a 70 year-old Columbia River Salmon boat was donated to the church to match the lighthouse. Eight of these boats were left from 1000’s that used to sail past the lighthouse. Herman Melville pictured a scene in Moby Dick where the minister climbed up into a boat to address the flock. Jesus preached from a boat. So we moved the boat into the auditorium and sealed up the wall of the new building. Some thought this was fitting for an historical lighthouse, others thought it an hysterical lighthouse. The bow of the olde boat is easily long enough to bury Shequel O’Neal in baptism. But while we have been restoring the boat (as well as using it for Tsunami Drills here on the coast) we have taken to baptizing people outside.

Now before the traditionalist states that every Restorationist Church must have a baptistery, communion table and an organ donated by the local mortuary playing Dracula music during the Lord’s Supper, let me give some reasons for having baptisms outside.

Outdoor Baptisms are Biblical. Now I do not want to start quoting the Bible in a Christian Publication, but John the Baptist did use the Jordan River and the Philip borrowed somebody’s hot tub somewhere out in the desert between Jerusalem and Gaza.

Indoor Baptisms are practical. I had the opportunity to baptize one of our young coast guard lieutenants in a local lake aptly named, Coffenberry (or is that coffin bury for Romans 6)? We baptized Drew at the boat ramp. As I shifted my weight from one leg to the other, I discovered the drop off. Both of us disappeared completely underwater in January, with a thin layer of ice. I believe the young man at his next base joined a Presbyterian church extolling the virtues of infant sprinkling. Seriously, indoor baptisms have moved our church to tears to watch dad baptize his son. But 75 degree water in a warm auditorium with a painted River Jordan commissioned by Van Gough is nowhere near as powerful as a baptism in the ocean with the spray kicking off the crest of the waves at sunset.

Outdoor Baptism have the following advantages:

1. They give a tremendous witness at our county or city parks and beaches. While we do not flaunt the event as Pharisees, those baptized usually “get on the horn” and call their friends to come watch.
2. The setting is awesome. A forested lake, a sandy ocean beach, a clear stream or river, the dorsal fin of the great white shark approaching the Minister!
3. The Moment is better remembered. The water is usually cooler, unless you are in Haiti. There is definitely a feeling of dying with Christ if the water is cold and the preacher gives a sermon while you are under water. 10 years later there is less of a blur by both the person doing the baptism and the one baptized. The moment is much more defining.
4. The Baptism is more likely to be captured on film. We take pictures of the baptism and along with a baptismal certificate present the event captured on camera.
5. Additional baptisms: Often times when we are done baptizing, we will look to the crowd and asked if anyone else would like to join Jesus in Baptism. 50% of the time people do!

Baptism should only SYMBOLIZE Jesus death, not cause one! There are safety issues that come with outdoor baptisms:

1. In rivers, if you can’t see the bottom, send an elder in first in first to determine the footing. You do not want the 6 O’clock news to read: “Preacher and parishioner swept away in Sioux City. Search parties are waiting at St Louis and New Orleans.”
2. Make certain there is no broken glass, barbed wire, crayfish or water moccasins.
3. In the Ocean, check for tides, currents, and breakers.
4. If you have several people to baptize in a lake, pick an area without a lot of sediment that will increase with each successive baptism.
5. If you are baptizing an older Senior Citizen, borrow a church member’s hot tub and have a warm towel available.
6. Choose a location where the audience can see the baptism. At some beaches you have to walk out 50 yards. Consider the audience. Will they be able to see well? Will the older people be able to walk to the viewing location?

Keep your church baptisteries full in faithful expectation of decisions at every service. But also take the church occasionally out of the cloistered building into the world testifying to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus through the public act of baptism.