Presbyterians do not usually think of sacraments as connecting with mission, yet baptism is always about mission, and communion has not only been a source of spiritual nourishment for believers, but itself a form of witness and a challenge to faith, one historically linked to revivals in Scottish history as we have seen.
Yet discussion about sacraments, perhaps even the very word, can seem to be an in house battle ground. We may associate those who worry about sacraments with those more concerned to get the wording right in a prayer than reach out in evangelism. Baptism used to be a regular welcoming of babies into the family of God, and for a while seemed to be something done by enthusiastic youth to new believers whether or not they were baptised as infants. Infant baptism could be associated as much with worries about validity as pastoral obligation or evangelistic opportunity. Does God really mind?
In the process we have become a church that accepts a range of practice, yet has a remarkably common theology of God's grace however we choose to acknowledge that.
Our concern here is not to "require" you to have a particular view, but it is to encourage you to seek to understand the range of views fairly allowable in our church. The riches of the biblical theology surrounding infant baptism are there to be appreciated, even if not all at the end of the day agree with it.
In baptism and sacraments generally watch out for arguments which say "Action A means X therefore we should do A." Meaning X is usually quite biblical - eg that immersion symbolises death and resurrection or that a helpless baby receiving baptism illustrates God's grace. The parallel with death and resurrection does not require immersion, but it does help make sense of it if you do it. The sign of grace in infant baptism does not require infant baptism, but it does help make sense of it if you do it.
Some evangelical Presbyterians are freshly discovering that the sustaining power of the Lord's Supper to Christian faith is about witness to the mystery of Christ as well as the nurture of believers. Orthodox Churches spread across Russia into Japan, across to Alaska and down the West Coast of America by a commitment to liturgy as mission and the powerful worship experiences for youth in places like Taizé and Parachute nearer home are also reminders that evangelism and worship go hand in hand.
Historically the great debates have been about who should be baptised and the social and evangelistic dimensions of mission. The amount of water appropriate in what circumstances and who should do it also feature. These are still live issues to be worked through for some folk, but there are many other things also to be said about recovering a sense of mission and the importance of initiation into the Kingdom of God.
This is an opportunity to engage with at least one of these issues that is of concern to you. I would also like to encourage reflection on what we need to do positively to encourage people not only to make decisions to follow Christ, but to be baptized or confirmed and to enter into responsible membership of the church. How is this possible in our contemporary culture? What ought to be happening regularly so that this is something that happens in our churches?
For reading leading into discussion, as well as the material in the reader (particularly the extract from the Westminster Confession on Baptism and the article by Karen Spierling), there are resources on http://roxborogh.com/REFORMED/baptisms.htm
This fortnights question:
What is done to prepare new believers and those considering confirmation in your congregation and what do we need to be doing about making initiation into faith, fellowship and membership more frequent and more memorable in our congregations?
John
John Roxborogh