The water is fine

One of my favorite movies is the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?. One scene always makes me smile and that’s when the escaped convict Delmar tries to convince the other two-thirds of his group to jump in the waters of baptism by exclaiming, “C’mon in, boys, the water is fine!”. I grew up in the South but I never witnessed a crowd of people going into a river for baptism. I only saw pictures of days gone by.

Since August of 2012 I have baptized nine youth or adults by immersing them completely in water, one of them in a portable baptismal and the rest in the flowing waters of the surrounding country. I am a cradle Methodist and an elder in the United Methodist Church. I had never seen an immersion baptism done by a Methodist until I was 27 years old and almost one year into my first appointment as a pastor. In the last five years of my current appointment, I have baptized 15 people by immersion. It thrills me to see people respond to Jesus’ call to “follow me” and ask, “what shall we do?” like the people who heard Peter’s Pentecost sermon in Acts 2. I tell them the same thing Peter said, “Repent and be baptized.” So, that’s what they’ve done.

As I baptize more and more people by immersion, people ask me “Why are you immersing them? We are Methodists and I thought it was the Baptists who immerse people.” It’s a fair question. Given our demographics and decline as a denomination in the last forty-five years, I suspect that many United Methodists have never seen one of their own baptized by immersion. Many United Methodist Churches do not see even one baptism a year and as paedobaptists (infant baptizers), it is even more rare to see a person baptized by immersion[1]. So, I want to answer the question that has been raised in my church and for all of us who call ourselves United Methodist.

On page 81 of the United Methodist Book of Worship, we read:

United Methodists may baptize by any of the modes used by Christians. Candidates or their parents have the choice of sprinkling, pouring, or immersion; and pastors and congregations should be prepared to honor requests for baptism in any of these modes. (Emphasis mine)

A Methodist might think immersion is what the Baptists do (as if what our Baptist brothers and sisters do is repulsive to us - it’s not - but that’s a topic for another post), but as our Book of Worship notes, we can and do practice baptism by immersion. Those who think immersion “isn’t Methodist” are wrong and one doesn’t have to look too hard to find instances in which John Wesley or Francis Asbury supported this practice[2]. As far as I’m concerned, if they did it, that’s as Methodist as it gets and I’m proud to stand as one of their spiritual and ministerial heirs.

This is a cut and dried case as far as our worship practices go as a denomination, but that’s not the answer I typically give when I’ve been asked this question. When asked, “Why are you immersing people?” I usually respond by saying, “Because the Holy Spirit is working in the hearts of the people of our church.” That’s a much better answer because that’s exactly what is happening. The love of God is poured into hearts (“shed abroad” in Wesley’s King James Bible) “by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5).The Spirit calls men and women, making alive those who are dead in their trespasses, and makes them new creations. Since they’ve never been baptized before, we baptize them because through baptism they are initiated into Christ’s holy church. That is an amazing thing and I rejoice in it.

The confusion as to why Methodists are immersing people points to something else altogether. The reason adult baptism by immersion is so alien to our congregations is because we do not see dead people come to life through the grace of God given to us by the atoning work of Christ on the cross, the power of the resurrection, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We assume that everyone around us is a Christian or that they go to church so we shouldn’t bother them. Our assumptions are wrong and when we share the good news of Jesus Christ with our neighbors and even those in our worship services there is no predicting how God might work and move in our hearts.

I want to perform more baptisms by immersion because I want to see people come to faith in Jesus Christ and follow him for the rest of their lives. This is what we’ve been called to do and we must be faithful.

  1. Adult baptisms by immersion are not only rare because we baptize infants, but also because we do not re-baptize anyone. Re-baptism is a chargeable offense in our Book of Discipline.  ↩

  2. From memory, there are a couple of accounts concerning immersion in the southern Methodist churches in Wigger’s biography of Asbury, but since it’s at my house you’ll just have to get a copy for yourself and look it up.  ↩

Disappearing Faith

So all evangelistic work depends on the ministry of people who themselves have a strong faith. But can we always count on that in the church?

It’s not always clear that those in the church have a strong faith. That’s true even for some people who did have a strong faith in the beginning.

A big part of John Wesley’s own concern was around the danger of “dissipation.” He used that word to describe what can happen to faith when it is not continually nurtured over time. Neglected faith can dissipate like a pool of water under a glaring sun.

Friend and colleague, Andrew Thompson, writes a thought-provoking post about cultivating a vibrant faith

Jesus, Priceless Treasure

Jesus, priceless treasure,
source of purest pleasure,
truest friend to me,
long my heart hath panted,
till it well-nigh fainted,
thirsting after thee.
Thine I am, O spotless Lamb,
I will suffer naught to hide thee,
ask for naught beside thee.

In thine arms I rest me;
foes who would molest me
cannot reach me here.
Though the earth be shaking,
every heart be quaking,
Jesus calms our fear;
sin and hell in conflict fell
with their heaviest storms assail us;
Jesus will not fail us.

Hence, all thoughts of sadness!
For the Lord of gladness,
Jesus, enters in.
Those who love the Father,
though the storms may gather,
still have peace within;
yea, whate'er we here must bear,
still in thee lies purest pleasure,
Jesus, priceless treasure!

-Johann Franck United Methodist Hymnal 532

Smart Playlists in iTunes and Dr. Kinlaw

My last post contained what's becoming an increasingly popular link among the #andcanitbe crowd on Twitter. That link was to Dr. Dennis Kinlaw's sermon page and in the spirit of sharing wonderful online goodies, I thought I'd share a trick I picked up reading Merlin Man's smart playlist tutorial for iTunes.

This may not be that important for many of you but if you're a regular iTunes user and especially if you're using iTunes Match for your music library you'll find this advice helpful. I'm using iTunes Match and one of the great things about Match and the sermon archive I linked in the first paragraph is that the bit rate on the downloaded files is higher than 96kbps which means they are eligible for Match. That's great news. What's not great news is that if you're like me, you probably won't be running or driving your vehicle enough a span of time that will allow you to listen to a whole message (they are close to an hour a piece). No problem, right? You'll just pause the message and listen to it later. The problem with that is that on iOS devices the music player doesn't always remember where you paused it. That's a frustrating problem that I've not found a solution for. What I have done is to try and mitigate that frustration at least a little.

Many times I'd scan through the list of messages and pick one but if I paused in the middle of it and came back to the music player later I'd even forget which message I'd started to listen to or which messages I'd already listened to. What to do? Thanks to smart playlists in iTunes I've figured out a listening pattern that I can live with. What I did was to create a smart playlist in iTunes I called "Unplayed Kinlaw". In it I set a rule that the artist must be "Dr. Dennis Kinlaw". That put every message into this particular playlist. But, I wanted to eliminate messages that I had already listened to so I set another rule "Plays is 0". Starting at the top of that playlist I'll listen to the next message in the queue. When I've completed it, the message magically disappears from the playlist.

What happens here is that even if the music player forgets where I paused a message, I can scrub forward until I roughly find the place where I paused it and since I'm listening in order I know it's always the message at the top of the playlist.

It may not be pretty or even all that helpful, but it's cut down on my frustration in trying to listen to these wonderful messages from one of my spiritual heroes.

A Book Recommendation for Wesleyan-minded People

This isn't a book review but it is a recommendation. The reason it's not a review is that I need to reread it. No, I must reread this book. The book is Prayer: Bearing the World as Jesus Did by Dennis Kinlaw who is one of the founders of the Francis Asbury Society and former president of Asbury College (now University). I would rank Dr. Kinlaw as the most influential Christian in my life even though we've never met. I've read nearly all his books (I'm working through two right now) and I've downloaded for free a slew of his sermons from Sermon Index. No one I know has challenged my thinking and my heart the way this man has and I thank God for his witness.

I would have purchased this new book for no other reason than the fact that Dr. Kinlaw wrote it. I had an additional reason which was that I wanted someone I felt I could trust to instruct me in the life of prayer, especially since I felt like I was in another dry spell. I got instructed all right; I found out pretty quickly that the problem wasn't a dry spell but the state of my heart. This book is probably the best and clearest explanation of entire sanctification that I've read in my life and I've read a few being a son of Asbury Seminary. Dr. Kinlaw's book challenged my mind and moved my heart. I could sense the work of the Holy Spirit in my soul, calling me to confess and repent that I might be cleansed like God promised in 1 John 1:9.

That's all I'm going to say for now, at least until I get the chance to read it one or two more times. I'm going to buy several to make available for the folks in my church. You won't regret picking up a copy for yourself.

Gas Station Ashes

Four years ago, the church I serve had an Ash Wednesday service for the first time that anyone could remember. We had about fifteen people show up for a short and simple service in which the Scriptures were read and ashes imposed. I'm pretty sure I remember we had a tornado warning that night, too. Thankfully, it didn't scare anyone off and we've seen an increase in Ash Wednesday attendance each year. I love Lent and its beginning on this Wednesday.

This morning I tried something new. After reading this article a month ago, I asked the owner of the convenience store where many in our community get their morning coffee and breakfast if I could come on Ash Wednesday and impose ashes on people who wanted to come by on their way to work. He's a member of our church and I wanted to make sure he felt free to tell me no and he said he couldn't think of a reason to say no, so we were off and running!

This morning I arrived at 6:30 and for the next hour and a half I ate, visited, and imposed ashes on about a dozen people. We got some strange looks and a few questions, which I expected. We also experienced together the power of being a part of the body of Christ in our community. We were able to be the church outside of our building. What an amazing feeling!

Most of them will be back in about 40 minutes as we have our regular Ash Wednesday service, but I can't help but imagine what the next few years will bring in terms of participation and witness as we openly practice our faith outside of our building.