What does baptism mean?

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by Demi Prentiss

There’s plenty of debate among theologians and scholars as to the meaning of Jesus’ baptism. There’s much less uncertainty around what our own baptisms mean for us:

  • We have joined God’s mission.
  • We are commissioned to pattern our lives after Jesus – the very definition of being a follower.
  • We are sent out from our safe havens to be risk-takers, helping to shape a more loving and more just world.

Simple. Not easy.

To deal with that problem, Adam Hamilton, as he recounts in his book The Way, gave each of his 8,000 congregants a laminated tag to hang in the shower. He asked them to pray these words each day:

Lord, as I enter the water to bathe, I remember my baptism. Wash me again by your grace. Fill me with your Spirit. Renew my soul. I pray that I might live as your child today, and honor you in all that I do. Amen.

 Simple. Not easy. So remember to walk wet. It takes practice.

What do you know about your baptism?

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by Herb Donovan

When was it?  Where?  Who took part? I understand my baptism as the response of my parents and other loved ones to God’s action already taken for me by God naming me as His child.

My baptism took place in September 1931 at the Rocks Chapel near Eutawville, SC. I was about six weeks old.  My father, an Episcopal priest, officiated.  My parents had been married in the same chapel over a year earlier.  I understand that about a dozen family members were present.  I have seen a picture taken on the occasion, of me in a dress, held in the arms of Mother’s older sister, my Godmother.  I remember visiting the chapel as a boy, shortly before it was destroyed in preparation for a lake coming into the area as part of a redevelopment project.

These facts about my baptism are important to me because they are the place, time, and persons involved in my beginning as a child of God.  I am ever grateful that my parents, godparents, and other caring persons over the years have helped me try to grow into the person that God continues to call me to be, and that He continues to call me to reach out to others in His name.

What is a successful congregation?

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by Peyton G. Craighill

The answer to that question is clear. A successful congregation is:

  • On Sunday morning, a full church,
  • And at the end of the fiscal year, a balanced budget.

Any rector or senior warden knows that. It makes perfect business sense.

The only trouble with that answer is that it is not Christ’s answer. Why does Christ establish congregations? The answer to that question is also equally clear.

Christ’s purpose is to help him to fulfill his Great Commission that his Heavenly Father gave to him through his birth at Christmas, reinforced through his baptism in the Jordan River. After Christ’s Ascension, he was present on earth primarily through his Body, the Church. That means every one of us that shares with him in his baptism shares with him also in that Great Commission — to live out in our daily lives the Good News of the power of Christ’s love, justice, and peace.

The first answer is focused on attraction; the second on sending. The first answer says come; the second answer says go!

Spiritual directors and direction for the Baptized

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by Edward Lee

It’s generally recognized that baptism has been restored to its sacramental centrality in the life of the church. Baptism gives the Christian his/her  essential identity.  It’s our mandate for ministry which means it is a serious and solemn vocation. But we need to regain this sense of solemnity if we are to do our missionary work in daily life. Here, therefore, are four spiritual directors for the baptized, who in their lifetimes were serious about ministry for the sake of God’s mission in the world.

“The work in front of you is God’s work and not yours. If God wants it to succeed, it will. If God doesn’t, it won’t. What God wants of you is to try! So have courage – and move.”

Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), founder of the Society of Jesus

“A spirituality that preaches resignation under official hostilities, servile acquiescence in frustration and sterility, and total submission to organized injustice is one which has lost interest in holiness and remains concerned only with a spurious notion of ‘order.'”

Thomas Merton (1915-1968), Trappist monk and author

“What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when, of course, it is the cross.”

Flannery O’Conner (1925-1964), American writer and essayist

“The trouble with some of us is that we have been inoculated with small doses of Christianity which keep us from catching the real thing.”

Leslie D. Weatherhead (1893-1976), English theologian and preacher

Baptism is the real thing and a serious vocation indeed!

What are we to do?

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by Fletcher Lowe

A key player in our Advent season is John the Baptist.  In Luke’s Gospel, after their Baptism, several people come to him asking what, as the Baptized, are we to do: the crowd, some tax collectors, soldiers.  John’s answers are specific, connecting their Baptismal faith with their real life. (Luke 3: 10-14)

That same question, as the baptized, is ours: What shall I do?  In the parishes where I have served, it has been my privilege to visit members in their workplace – yes, with my clerical collar.  The conversation goes: what do you do here? What is the Sunday connection – the Faith connection – with what you do here?  For most it is the first time that question has been raised – and often it leads to an aha moment where the worker sees that what he/she is doing is ministry – empowered by Baptism.

So, in the spirit of Advent we need to join those coming from the Baptist’s time and pause to consider: How does my Baptism connect with my daily life.  What am I doing in my everyday life to live into my Baptism?

Writing a mission statement?

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by Wayne Schwab

Are you writing your church’s mission statement?  Don’t begin by asking everyone to describe what they want the church to be doing; drawing together all the responses; and presenting them to the church for approval; and filling up many meetings and many weeks.
What’s more, it’s the wrong place to start.  It’s centered in us.  Start with God and God’s mission.  Look for what God is up to in the world you see around you. Ask the church and each member.  Work from the biblical narrative – the prophets’ call to justice; Jesus’ call to love as well as justice; the gift of the Spirit to everyone.
So, begin with God’s mission to make the world more loving and more just.  Jesus came to live God’s mission for all to see. Your church’s mission is to continue God’s mission in Jesus Christ to make the world more loving and more just. In baptism and reaffirmation of faith, each member joins Jesus’ mission to make the world more loving and more just.

 

Summer 2014 Newsletter

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We invite you to read and print our quarterly newsletter in PDF format. Share it with your congregation, friends, and co-workers.

Episcopalians on Baptismal Mission – EBM – Newsletter Summer 2014 (pdf – 656 kB)

Twelve Principles of the Movement for Baptismal Mission in Daily Life

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by Peyton G. Craighill

  1. God is always on mission. Because God is love, God is never remote or passive. Divine love is the greatest power in the universe, reaching constantly into every corner of creation. God is always on mission, creating, liberating, and sustaining – serving as the archetypal missionary.
  2. God formed a servant people to share in God’s mission.Through the covenant with Abraham, God established a servant people as partners in mission through all time and in all places.
  3. God prepared a servant people to share with God on mission.Through their baptism in the Red Sea and their covenant instituted by Moses at Mount Sinai, God’s servant people were prepared for sharing in God’s mission.
  4. God sent Jesus on mission into our world.In the fullness of time, God sent Jesus on mission into our world to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God.
  5. In his baptism, Jesus revealed his mission.Through Jesus’ baptism, the Father revealed him to be God’s Son, come to share with the Father in mission among all of God’s servant people and among all nations.
  6. Christ instituted the New Covenant.At the Last Supper, Christ instituted the New Covenant with God’s servant community. Through Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, he ratified that Covenant.
  7. The Bible and church history are the story of God’s mission.On the basis of the progression outlined above, we see that the story of the Bible is the narrative of God’s mission in and for the world. This missional narrative has continued throughout the history of the church. Church history is the history of God’s mission through God’s servant people, spreading out to cover God’s world with the knowledge and practice of divine love and justice.
  8. Still today, the church is an agent of God’s mission.The church has no mission of its own. Its only mission is to share in God’s mission in ways appropriate to each time and place. God establishes every congregation to promote God’s mission in its local setting. Every congregation is God’s “base camp” for mission. Mission isn’t a secondary, peripheral activity of the church; it’s why the church exists!
  9. Through baptism, we share in God’s mission.Baptism is the rite through which all people, whether infants or adults, are commissioned by Christ to share in God’s mission. The Baptismal Covenant provides the guidance by which baptized people grow in maturity as they share in God’s mission in their daily lives. Every baptized member of the church is Christ’s missionary!
  10. Daily-life missions are carried out in seven areas.The areas in daily life where baptismal mission is carried out, Monday through Sunday, are the following:  home, workplace, leisure, community, wider world, spiritual formation, and church ministries. Normally, members accomplish their missions-in-Christ in these areas through their customary daily-life activities.
  11. Congregations prepare members to share in God’s mission.The congregation should be the organization that promotes preparation for mission in daily life by providing resources that inspire, form, guide, and support their members on mission, Monday through Sunday. Leaders need to plan all aspects of congregational ministry – liturgical, formational, pastoral, and service-oriented – to reflect this missional spirit. Many congregations who are primarily focused on attracting in more members into their activities should change their primary focus to sending out their members on God’s mission.
  12. Wider ministries support congregations in daily-life missions.The wider ministries of the church in dioceses, seminaries, educational and publishing centers, and in national church programs need to support their local congregations in their efforts to accomplish this paradigm shift to a missional orientation for their ministries.