Baptism
For the last few months, we have run The Alpha Course at our church. I am a big fan of Alpha, having run them for 16 years!
For those who don’t know, the course is a place to ask the big questions of life, and to explore the Christian faith in a friendly, open and informal environment.
It is a series of talks which are presented in a 30-minute ‘TV style’ programme. The quality of the material and production is outstanding.
The basic format of the evening is to have some food together, watch the video, then discuss what you watched. Over the years we have done this in homes, Starbucks, online (during the Covid lockdowns) and at our church building.
We have seen people, who are exploring faith, discover who Jesus is and want to become a Christian.
This Sunday we are baptising three people from the most recent Alpha, as part of the next step of their Christian journey! In our church, we go for a ‘full immersion’ baptism at our Sunday gathering.
Baptism is an important step when someone becomes a Christian. Jesus commanded it, and the ‘church’ has done it for new believers for 2000 years!
In the book of Romans, the writer Paul, explained baptism in this way…
“When we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and shared his death. So, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the wonderful power of the Father, we also can live a new life.”
Baptism is a public declaration of the believers ‘new life’. In speaking to someone we are baptising this Sunday, they said that they could not wait to be free from their ‘old life’.
How do you feel when you look at your life? I’m sure there is a mixture of triumphs and tragedies. There may well be some things you would rather forget or want to be free from.
In my role as a Pastor, I meet people who are damaged and hurt from life. Some are riddled with guilt whilst others feel shame, rejected and unloved.
Good news! Jesus offers everyone a fresh start. How would you like to be ‘dead’ to those bad, negative, painful things in your past?
Let me encourage you to seek Jesus. Why not join an Alpha Course near you? You are more than welcome to join us this Sunday at 10:30am at Hope Community Church, RG21 8SR and see for yourself the life-transforming power of Jesus as we baptise people!
God bless you :)
Gary Bastin - Hope Community Church leader