Water baptism is an outward symbol of an inward decision to follow Jesus. 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 (Acts 16:31-34). Romans 6 tells us that when we are baptized, we put to “death” our old sinful life. It is a picture of our desire to be united with Jesus through his death and burial (going down in the water) and the new life we have because of his resurrection (coming back up from the water) (Romans 6:3-5).

Anyone who has put their faith in Jesus Christ can and should get baptized. Baptism is the next step for anyone who has committed his or her life to following Jesus (Acts 8:12).

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).

The Bible does not show that you must wait any set period of time. In fact, there are examples of people being baptized immediately after accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. Baptism is about taking your next step in obedience to Christ, therefore we encourage everyone & anyone who has placed their faith in Jesus to get baptized as soon as we offer it.

Because Jesus instructed us to be baptized, baptism is an act of obedience. While it is not necessary for salvation, it demonstrates submission to God. Some traditions teach that you must be baptized in order to receive salvation. We firmly believe that one is only saved by grace and through faith and not of anything we do on our own (Ephesians 2:8-9). Water baptism doesn’t save you, it only declares to the world that God has already saved you.

Although there are different traditions in how people baptize, we believe the New Testament model was baptism by immersion, which symbolizes the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). The word for baptism in the original language means to make fully wet and most often referred to being immersed or submerged in water. The written account of Jesus being baptized describes him being immersed in the water and rising out of it (Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10). Therefore, we baptize by immersion and encourage you to take this step if you have never been baptized in this way.

While we recognize that some churches practice infant baptism, our understanding from the Bible is that baptism always followed a person’s decision to trust Jesus for his or her salvation and commitment to follow Him (Acts 10:47-48). In truth, if you were baptized as a baby it was your parent’s choice and not yours.

As parents, we can help point our children to Jesus, but they are the ones to decide if they will commit their lives to Him (Romans 10:9). We encourage those who were christened or baptized as infants to consider getting baptized now as an understanding believer. Perhaps one can consider this a fulfillment of what their parents desired for them when they were a baby.

We will baptize older children upon their own expression of a desire to be baptized and an understanding of their own decision to follow Jesus, after a meeting with our Family Pastor.