Celebrating For The Right Reason

This past Sunday, we had a baptism in our church family but just saying that isn't enough. The right way to say it is "Lukas was baptized this Sunday" and after he was baptized, he glorified God with his statements. You may accuse me of being judgmental about this but I have seen too many churches committing one of the following mistakes.

The first mistake happens when a church focuses on the number of baptisms instead of the people who are being baptized. I have even seen the Kentucky Baptist Convention give out awards to the churches who baptized the most people during a certain time frame. Baptisms are not to be considered another point on our scoreboard, they are to remind us of each person's conversion and that is what we should be celebrating. He was lost but now he is found!

The second mistake is closely related to the first one. I have seen a video of a preacher who asked if anyone wanted to be rebaptized... and yes, this church was one of the churches recognized for it's many baptisms. Baptizing people is not a competition, it is an ordinance that we are commanded to do in order to glorify God.

The third mistake is baptizing someone too quickly. Jesus said that we would be known by our fruit and you can't identify someone's fruit without spending some time with them. We are not the apostles who often baptized someone instantaneously. We need to see if this person's faith is genuine or not. I had one person ask to be baptized years ago and then a few days later, he said "Never mind. I thought if I got baptized, she would go out with me."

One more for today... the fourth mistake is taking credit for the baptism. Instead of remembering that is God who saves us (1 Corinthians 1:18; Ephesians 2:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5), I have heard people brag about how many people they saved during an event or for the year. But Paul said "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." (1 Corinthians 3:6).

So, yes, we should celebrate baptisms but we should do it for the right reason. Not because our score went up in the competition, not because we think that we saved somebody... we should celebrate because God has brought another person into His family and He has given us the opportunity to witness this. To God be all of the glory!