How to Perform Baptism

[Shawn Koester]

Brothers and sisters- This past Sunday at Church of the Chimes (Disciples of Christ) in Fontana CA, the church where I'm currently serving as Pastor, John, one of my guests officially walked down the aisle to confess Jesus as his Lord and Savior and joined the church. We will be performing our first baptism in years. I have witnessed plenty of immersion baptisms in my life as a 3rd generation Baptist, but I have never performed one. Does anyone have a sample service that I can look at? I know it usually goes with the candidate describing how they came to know the Lord, the pastor goes over the meaning of baptism, then goes the confession of faith, dunking the candidate either by one-fold or tri fold immersion using the baptismal formula that symbolizes being buried into our Lord's death and rising with him in newness of life. I'm curious how do you dunk the person, and who besides the pastor performs the service?

[Sandy]

In the last Baptist church I served, which was pastorless for the last two and a half years I was there, it was a pretty simple service. If I was doing the baptism, I'd simply ask them to tell the congregation a simple confession of faith in Christ, and then I would baptize them by leaning them backward into the water, covering their nose with a handkerchief or washcloth, and would say something like "This is my brother or sister _____, baptized in the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit, buried with Christ in baptism, and raised to walk in new life with Christ." I only dunk once.

Generally, if there were a person that the baptismal candidate felt was influential in their coming to Christ, they could request that person be allowed to perform the baptism. About half of those who were baptized made that request. Usually parents, sometimes grandparents.

[Haruo]

If you were conducting the service in Esperanto, you could use my baptismal song, "", but I don't have a singable English version. It's a sung conversation among the baptizer, the baptizee, and the congregation:

Verse 1: Baptizer:
With water I shall baptize you according to custom,
as Jesus baptized John:
A sign of repentance, a declaration of faith,
birth-seal of the Christian.

Verse 2: Baptizer:
Come, dove, Divine Spirit,
let the water shine, touch it!
Let us from heaven hear the voice:
"Behold, I love you, my daughter/son

Verse 3: Baptizer
Do you wish to follow Jesus,
To live as far as possible according to his word,
To love the people, to carry the cross,
To die, and to live in spite of death?

Verse 4: Baptizee
Yes, I wish to follow Jesus,
to show him clearly in my world,
To put into practice his teaching,
To assent to him with a whole-life response.

Verse 5: Baptizer
Then in the name of our Father
And in the name of the Son of God
And in the name of the Spirit most Holy,
I now baptize you according to God's guidance.

Verse 6: Congregation
We joyfully witness your baptism,
We glorify God, one in three:
Your becoming our brother/sister we celebrate;
The church makes you welcome!

The tune is BUNESSAN. It's in the Esperanto hymnal.

[Jon Estes]

[Haruo]

Just out of curiosity, what is this thread doing in the Politics and Public Policy Issues forum? In UAE I suppose it may make sense to put it here, but the thread began in the USA.

[Tim Bonney]

Shawn,

It look like you are also looking for the mechanics/technique for performing imersion baptism as well?

Hopefully the water is at least up to the waist of the candidate. Have the candidate grab one of their own wrists with the other hand and hold their nose with the free hand. Ask them to bend their knees slightly as it make it easy to bring them back up. Stand beside the candidate and make sure to take a good wide stance. Grab the candidate by one of their forearms and put your other hand behind their lower back. Carefully lower them under the water. You may actually have to push a little to get them all the way under. People are boyant. Then raise them up carefully and hopefully they can push up with their legs if they bent their knees as you've told them.

BTW, if you are in a river make sure that you dunk them into the current otherwise water may go up their nose and, if they are wearing a baptismal gown it will ride up.

That is how I do it anyway.

[Joseph Patrick]

From Joseph Patrick...aka Gerry Milligan
I always told the person being baptized beforehand to grab my LEFT (I am left handed) forearm as if it were a baseball bat. I would have a handkerchief in that hand and my right hand between the shoulder blades. Have them lay back and let gravity take them under. Then bring them up/ Saying "buried with Him in baptiesm, raised to walk in a newness of life."
Except for the time I tried to baptize a Chinese lady (who had no clue as to what a baseball bat was) in the Dead Sea (no gravity to take her under) where she just floated, my quandary was "This is a woman, floating on her back, where do I push to get her immersed?"

[Tim Bonney]

Everyone has their favorite technique. But I prefer to be the grabber rather than be grabbed because if a candidate falls or panics they'll pull you in with them. And since Methodists don't believe in rebaptism I'd just as soon not do that.

[William Thornton]

When baptize, I don't have the baptizee grab anything because it makes it more difficult to get totally immersed...and if I'm immersing let's get 'em completely under water, after all you wouldn't bury someone and let their face or hand stick up out of the ground.

If you're used to sprinkling then I suppose it doesn't matter.

What makes me cringe is when I see a baptism where the minister forcefully plunges the candidate under water, as if a baptistery tsunami is required.

[Haruo]

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

I have performed one baptism in my nonexistent pastoral career, a friend from AA named Bob. This page gives my baptismal song (detailed above) and accompanies it with photos of the baptism: .

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

[Tim Bonney]

I'd see it as a universal Church function carried out most often in a local church. But I'd agree that it doesn't have to be a local church function.

[Haruo]

My reading in pre-Vatican-II Catholic canon law indicated that according to the Roman church, an atheist can perform a valid Christian baptism without any authorization from a church or church functionary, provided s/he does it with the intention of doing what the church holds to be needful for the salvation of a person (especially an infant) in danger of dying unbaptized. FWIW.

[William Thornton]

The vestigial Landmarkist in me compels me to consider baptism a local church ordinance.

[Tim Bonney]

[William Thornton]

[Rvaughn]

[William Thornton]

[Rvaughn]

[Rvaughn]

BTW, William, I assumed you were talking about limiting it exclusively to ordained ministers. You do know of SBC churches who wouldn't let an unbeliever (or perhaps an unbaptized person) perform a baptism, don't you?

[Rvaughn]