19 Things I Learned From Baptizing 19 People Sunday

1. Making a special baptism day works. Having never done this before, we were a little skeptical if it would be effective. Lord knows how horrifying it would be to advertise Baptism Sunday and no one gets baptized! We advertised a month out and were hoping for four or five, but obviously we got much more than that.

2. Our move to a portable baptistery was a great decision. Five years ago we ripped out our regular baptistery in the typical place in the wall at the back of the stage and went with a portable baptistery. We wanted something closer to the audience that was easier to engage with. Our move to a portable baptistery has been incredible not only because we can baptize (and have baptized) in multiple locations on campus, but in the Worship Center it creates a much more engaging experience because the baptistery is right next to the congregation.

3. People don’t like to make testimony videos (but it’s good for them). We’re huge fans of testimony videos because it records their story. We believe it helps recapture the sense of public-ness that baptism loses when done indoors and in front of the ‘home’ crowd. Most of our folks who have been baptized said they were inspired by watching someone else’s testimony video. We fully know, however, that testimony videos are not a rule of Scripture and we didn’t want to become Pharisaical about it, so we relaxed that rule for one Sunday.

4. Couples getting baptized are amazing. We had two husband/wife couples who were baptized together at the same time. (Rule of thumb: always baptize the husband first so the wife doesn’t have to stand around self-consciously with a wet t-shirt any longer than necessary). Getting baptized together will be a cherished memory that those couples will have together forever.

5. Professional pictures are the way to go. Most churches have at least one photographer in the church willing to donate their services. We had one available Sunday that captured the baptisms on camera, giving them and us beautiful visuals that we will cherish for years to come.