131 cross the line in the pool.

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The most meaningful baptisms in my life have been those of my own family. I’ve had the privilege of baptizing my entire family – two children at our church in Virginia, one child here on Easter morning, and my wife as she rededicated her life at the Jordan River in Israel. But beyond those, I have never been part of a more powerful baptism as the one we did yesterday.

Sunday we had a spontaneous baptism. We had heard of it at some of our friends’ churches, and talked about doing it last fall, but never did. Our teaching team came back to the idea this week as we were talking about our new series, “Cross The Line“. Two of our teachers, Paul and Tim, led our baptism team as they gathered commitment cards, shorts and t-shirts, towels, hair dryers, etc. Brian gave a clear gospel explanation and invitation for people to cross the line, to start 2008 by following Christ in a meaningful way. He and I jumped in the tub and waited for people to come.

And they came. 131 people.

Eight people in the first service, 62 in the second, and 61 in the third. The stories were amazing. Husbands and wives together, dads and sons, five guys from the same small group, old and young, moms and daughters, people saved for years but never had been baptized, 42 people who asked Christ for salvation in the service.

I spent the morning drenched and focused on getting everyone back up out of the water [hey, there were some big guys – I only missed one – he was big and wouldn’t bend his legs – I never got his head under]. But mainly I spent the time drawn in to the stories. Because that’s what baptism is – a public ceremony where we tell our story of following Christ.

Many of the stories were personal to me, people who I have had or am having the privilege of walking with through the valley. The man whose wife has walked out on him. The young girl I had met when I performed her father’s funeral. The young couple I recently met in the midst of a family tragedy, surrounded by police and EMTs. The young man who wandered into church for the first time at Christmas and prayed with me to receive Christ. The young girl I first met in an emergency room and days later gave her heart to Christ at the funeral of her younger brother. These were the stories that brought it full circle for me, watching God bring life out of death and tragedy.

I also realized some lessons in the pool.

• The power of God trumps programming every time. We hurriedly planned this event in a matter of days. Our incredible worship arts/media team flexed the program. We still had excellence, but it was raw, real, not slickly packaged. People want to see real.

• People are waiting to be asked to cross the line. It was amazing to stand up high in the tub and watch people’s faces as they came down to be baptized. It was like, “yeah, that’s what I want. No more excuses, I’ve been waiting to be asked. Today is the day.” Too often we soft-peddle the message. We’re afraid of coming on too strong. But people are ready for the challenge to life that is higher than their present state.

• Ceremony is powerful. God gives humans ceremony because they engage all our senses – communion, sacrificing, holy kisses, foot washing, baptism. We could intellectually discuss obedience, but there’s something about stepping in the water, feeling it swallow us as we’re buried with Him in death and feel the air as we raise to walk in His new life.

• Following Jesus should be done with family. Almost always [except for that lone Ethiopian] scripture shows groups baptized together – families [acts 16], households [acts 10], towns [acts 8]. We did the same. Then, to use our time wisely, we began dunking two individuals at a time, people who didn’t even know each other. But I thought, “how appropriate, no better place to start new fellowships than in the baptismal pool!”

• People will linger to watch life-change. We watch the clock, we try to respect people’s time. So after about 75 minutes in each of the last two services, and with many more to be baptized, Brian released the crowd. But most of them stayed to watch. We had to start the last service 10 minutes late, and it didn’t finish to almost 1:30. And hundreds stayed. We see it in Jesus’ ministry – when people are being taught and watching healings, they ain’t goin’ nowhere. They are hungry for more.

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