Just Add Water - Logistics

As Pastor Scott mentioned yesterday, there are some 50 people signed up to be baptized this coming Sunday. While Just Adding Water seems simple enough, doing so when we don't have a permanent baptismal presents some challenges. But as I shared with the staff in last week's staff meeting (using John's account of the feeding of the 5000), we can't allow logistics to get in the way of how God is moving in the hearts and minds of His children.

Through the late 1990s, Grace was content to hold baptismal services outside of the regular Sunday morning worship times and to hold the services in the original Chapel which has a built-in baptistery. But it didn't seem the appropriate atmosphere for celebrating one of the ordinances of the church. The timing didn't mesh with the schedule shifts of our culture, near the end all of 10 people were showing up for baptisms. At the same time the capacity of the Chapel doesn't hold the Sunday morning attendances. So we went with a temporary solution to accommodate baptisms on Sunday mornings - a hot tub!

That's served okay for the past four plus years (not everyone was fully immersed, in some cases only the front half of their head was plunged - the water height is all of 30"). But with us anticipating 50+ baptisms this week we're faced with a couple of issues:

Time - it takes a while to get people in and out of a baptistery, not an issue John the Baptist probably faced in the Jordan. In that forum, they were probably able to line everyone up in the river and just walk down the line. Unfortunately, Scripture doesn't give us the specifics of how they baptized at Pentecost - that would've been an interesting read. Our time-driven culture pressures us to get the 50+ people baptized in such a way that we can still get home (or beat the restaurant rush) as close to 12 noon as possible.

Water - when you start talking about mass baptisms, you have to think about how much water you'll need. Between what will spill out of the tub and what will walk about in the drenched clothing, there's a good chance we'll loose a good amount of water out of the tub.

I'm not in the loop, but from what I understand a couple of options are being considered. For one, we've ordered another makeshift baptistery. Having two tubs gives the option of doing near simultaneous baptisms. Plus, the newly ordered tub, being a bigger one, will be able to hold more water. You'll have to come Sunday to celebrate what God's doing in these people's lives and for side interest, how we navigate the logistics.