Next Step:  Baptism

Baptism is going public about your faith in Jesus and communicating to the world your heart-felt commitment to following Him. It's the next step after salvation.

Baptism is an outward expression of an inward change. It’s a public declaration of how Jesus changed your life. Being baptized shows others that you’ve decided to follow Jesus, and allows them to celebrate this decision with you.  (I Corinthians 15:3-4, Colossians 2:12)

Baptism doesn’t make you a believer - it shows that you already believe.  Baptism doesn’t "save” you, only your faith in Christ does that.  Baptism is like a wedding ring - it’s the outward symbol o

 

Jesus instructs us to be baptized and set the example by being baptized (Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 1:9).

Obedience to Jesus shows we believe and follow Him. (1 John 2:3). Because Jesus went public about His love for us, we can go public about our love for Him. Being baptized shows that we turn away from a life of sin toward Jesus, the only one who can change us (Acts 2:38-41).

 

For everyone who decides to follow Jesus, baptism is the next step. Anyone who commits his or her life to following Jesus is ready to be baptized (Acts 8:12).

 

At Connecting Point, we wait until our children are old enough to believe and understand the true meaning of baptism, and old enough to remember their baptism, before we baptize them.

Some churches practice infant baptism. This ceremony is similar in nature to our practice of child dedication, and is intended to be a covenant between the parents and God on the behalf of the child—the parents promise to raise their child in the faith until the child is old enough to make his own personal confession of Jesus Christ. The custom of infant baptism began about 300 years after the Bible was completed.

Infant baptism is not a practice found in Scripture, nor do we find evidence of its practice by the early church. The biblical purpose for baptism is to publicly profess your personal commitment to Jesus Christ.