Baptisms at Rebecca's church!!!!!!!1111!!!!!!

[WonderingInWA]

Wow, is there anyone else who thinks this is just really super creepy? Especially the video. Holy crap. Is this how baptisms are done in fundie land? It's like a stage with hiswayserves-hiswayserves.blogspot.com/2011/11/baptisms.html

[annalena]

1- that blog address is just...weird. hiswayserves-hiswayserves??

2- was he trying to drown her in the video?

weirdness.

[jlbturtle]

I don't consider myself fundy by any stretch of the imagination and this is how we do baptism in our church. There isn't anything weird about it that I see and my church is quite large 8-10 thousand.

[Kitten]

That's a pretty ordinary "full immersion" baptism, actually.

[WonderingInWA]

I just think the whole "behind the screen" thing is weird. I'm really intrigued to see behind the screen -- is it like a hot tub? I'm sorry, but when I got baptized, it was a sprinkle of water on my head. And I was 13.

[Guest Anonymous]

I was baptised by total immersion like that.

BTW, she originally had a blog called 'hiswayserves' and it went down. She couldn't restore it so she started the new one with the repeat in the title.

[SouthCarolinaGirl79]

It isn't weird to me either. I've never seen the "screen" before that is blocking the view of the pool, but that other than that it is pretty normal. Most of the churches where I live that practice immersion baptism do not have the means to have a baptismal pool in the church so there is one larger church in the area that allows nonmembers to use after church services. Usually you change into a smock of sorts that is navy or white and is made of very heavy cloth so it won't cling to the body afterwards. The reason her nose is being held by her husband's hand is so water won't rush up her nostrils when she is dunked. The only thing weird to me is that I've never seen a baptism with only one dunk. Typically it is three dunks, one for each part of the trinity. Also, it is not uncommon where I live for people to wait for warmer weather and be baptized in a river. Not all fundamentalist Christians practice immersion baptism.

[snarkbillie]

We do full immersion baptisms at my church. Ostensibly everyone who is a member of the church was at some point baptized. We have a baptismal pool which is like a very short, very deep bathtub. Ours is heated (not as hot as a hot tub) but many churches can't afford to have theirs heated. Ours is filled all the time and has a pump (similar to a pool) to keep the water clean because we generally end up baptizing one or two people a week. The church I grew up in only filled theirs on demand. (no pump)

That looked pretty typical. I'm can answer any other questions you have.

[Kitten]

The screen may be to prevent men from being defrauded by the "wet t-shirt" effect...or it may just be a fluke of the architecture of the baptismal pool. Without being in the building, no way to know.

Most formal Baptist churches I have seen have the baptismal pool right down in front of the altar. but from the little you can see in the video, it looks like this might be a storefront church, so they may have a makeshift configuration.

[Guest Anonymous]

We had no screen but we had to wear 'baptism robes' which were long flowing black robes like CoE vicars wear! Noone put their hand over our mouth - that would have been a deal breaker for me. We crossed our arms over our chest and they held our wrists and had one arm round our back.

Can't believe I did that now. I was 15 - can't believe my atheist parents let me!

[snarkbillie]

You can't see "into" the baptismal at the church I attend now or the one I grew up in. It's up on the stage and while there is a little clear part above the water level (so you can see that they did in fact go under water, I guess...but why?!) it's only like 4 inches high, the rest is encased and paneled over.

I used to work at a church daycare and it was always a big thing with the little kids wondering what the baptismal was really like as they'd only seen it from the pews. I made it a point to take them to see it on a day when it was empty, we would all step down into the empty pool and walk around. I tried to avoid starting the "ECHO, echo, echoecho" game as it's probably disrespectful, but I just didn't have a lot of self control in that area. They were a group of 4-5 year olds, what else was I supposed to do with them?!

[NurseNell]

I don't consider myself fundy by any stretch of the imagination and this is how we do baptism in our church. There isn't anything weird about it that I see and my church is quite large 8-10 thousand.

8 to 10,000!! Holy cow, I can't even imagine a church that large. How could the pastor(s) possibly know more than a few hundred? How many attend an average service? Do you feel a sense of community there? I think that would be my problem with a mega church.

[Katiebug]

That was interesting - I've never seen a full immersion baptism before.

Little Bug was baptized at a few months old (as is typical in our denomination) and it was just pouring of water on her head. I've heard that some recently-constructed Lutheran churches have combination pools/fonts, so that immersion is an option. A friend of mine is Orthodox and they do their infant baptisms by immersion...I remember her being slightly freaked out at the thought of her newborn being dunked fully underwater three times in a row, but everything worked out fine.

[NurseNell]

That was interesting - I've never seen a full immersion baptism before.

Little Bug was baptized at a few months old (as is typical in our denomination) and it was just pouring of water on her head. I've heard that some recently-constructed Lutheran churches have combination pools/fonts, so that immersion is an option. A friend of mine is Orthodox and they do their infant baptisms by immersion...I remember her being slightly freaked out at the thought of her newborn being dunked fully underwater three times in a row, but everything worked out fine.

The Catholic Church baptizes infants, unless a non-baptized child or adult joins. It is just generally pouring water on the head but one parish I belonged to did infant baptism by immersion, naked. That's the only parish I've ever been in that does that.

[bionicmlle]

Yes I was immersed in outdoor SDA church babtisimal in January when i was 12. The heater didn't work that winter so it was SO cold. We all wore those long black robes that look similar as described above - like black choir robes. I now think it might have more to do with modesty (I never thought about it before!) now that I see these ladies baptized in their regular clothes -- that wouldn't exactly be too modest.

One thing that I didn't see anyone else mention -- the pastor used a white cloth to cover our nose/mouth during the immersion and we got to keep the cloth as a souvenir.

Yes, that is weird.

[jlbturtle]

In answer to your question I love it there! There are 3 services so really only about 2-3 thousand per service. There are many many community groups at our church so even though the church is large everyone can really fit in somewhere. I'm a part of a group of about 50 or so that are all in the same stage of life I am (unmarried and working). I actually met my boyfriend there :-) (wasn't looking for one but found one). Does the senior pastor know everyone by name, no of course not, but he does know most people by face and there are many other pastors helping him out. I've met many wonderful people! Size wise it may be a mega church but it honestly doesn't feel that way.

[aubrietta]

I was baptized just like that when I was 13, and this week saw a friend's son, at her church baptized just like it. I've never seen people dunked three times, what faith tradition is that? I've always gone to non-denominational evangelical churches, and now I go to a small mennonite church, and all of them just dunk once. The church I go to now doesn't have a tank, so we do it at the beach and no one gets baptized in the colder months!

My children were baptized as infants, as my husband is Catholic, and they were just sprinkled. The mennonites didn't like that much, but I didn't care!

[divadivine]

I think the screen might have been used to prevent defrauding. Or maybe they were only using a big plastic Rubbermaid tote back there?? Who knows?!!!!!!11!!!!!! I was baptized in the Baptist church. It was a traumatic experience. I blacked out in the middle of it because it was the middle of January and colder than a witches tit in a brass bra-- like near below to below zero temps for a whole week prior to the event-- and someone didn't turn on the heater in the baptismal pool. Who does that? Clearly people who aren't very bright. Needless to say, the only thing I remember was walking into the "pool' and walking back up the stairs. Nothing else. Maybe this was the turning point in my life because years later, I converted to Catholicism. Now, the preacher who baptized me considers me a heathen Catholic convert. Doesn't bother me a bit. I'm still bitter about the whole freezing water in the baptismal pool. We should ask Rebecca !!!!11!!!! to give us a behind the scenes look at the whole baptismal area.

[Hane]

Most formal Baptist churches I have seen have the baptismal pool right down in front of the altar.

This is quite similar to my cousins' baptisms in their American Baptist Convention church (a mainstream and non-fundie denomination), though they wore white robes (like graduation robes) when they were immersed.

[SouthCarolinaGirl79]

I've never seen people dunked three times, what faith tradition is that?

I've only been at SBC and Methodist churches for baptism. Even when I've seen sprinkling done in a Methodist church, it's been done three times. Because of my background, doing it once seems odd because it is supposed to symbolize the birth, death, and resurection of Christ. At all immersion baptisms I've seen work like this: I baptize you in the name of the Father , the Son , and the Holy Ghost . I looked it up on wiki and in their article on immersion baptism they mention that RC and EO also sprinkle/dunk three times.

Same question, back at you. What faith tradition are you familiar with that only dunks once? I think it is neat how much these things vary.

[apple1]

I was raised Baptist. All the Baptist churches I have ever personally been in have practiced believer's baptism by immersion.

The church has a baptismal pool, there is no screen, baptisms are generally part of the church service, often at the end of the service. The pastor doing the baptism says "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit", but the person is only immersed once.

[snarkbillie]

I've only been at SBC and Methodist churches for baptism. Even when I've seen sprinkling done in a Methodist church, it's been done three times. Because of my background, doing it once seems odd because it is supposed to symbolize the birth, death, and resurection of Christ. At all immersion baptisms I've seen work like this: I baptize you in the name of the Father , the Son , and the Holy Ghost . I looked it up on wiki and in their article on immersion baptism they mention that RC and EO also sprinkle/dunk three times.

Same question, back at you. What faith tradition are you familiar with that only dunks once? I think it is neat how much these things vary.

I grew up in Southern Baptist and we dunked once. Since then I've attended Church of Christ and Independent Christian who also dunk once. Currently Disciples of Christ who accept whatever baptism tradition you want....so 1, 3, or sprinkling. (I know you didn't ask me, just thought I'd offer it up.)

[LilMissMetaphor]

8 to 10,000!! Holy cow, I can't even imagine a church that large. How could the pastor(s) possibly know more than a few hundred? How many attend an average service? Do you feel a sense of community there? I think that would be my problem with a mega church.

I used to live an hour away from this one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoido_Full_Gospel_Church

...the world's largest Christian (Pentecostal) church.

[dawniecakes]

Usually you would hold your own nose in full immersion baptism. I'm from an evangelical/charismatic background but have only seen one dunk...

That being said, our old church had a HUGE tank room behind the pulpit. It was pretty cool!

[godlytomatosoup]

We had no screen but we had to wear 'baptism robes' which were long flowing black robes like CoE vicars wear!

I used to sing in the choir at a 'nosebleed-high' CofE church, and we wore cassocks and surplices, because we were part of the Herly Party (this was an Australian church, but for some reason the more bells-and-smells church, the more important it is that you talk in an upper-class English accent.)

They were such a horrible church, by the way. Really nasty, narrow-minded people. Treated the church like it was their personal historical reenactment club, only without the sense of humour most SCA people have. I remember one year a homeless man decided that the front porch of the church hall would be a good place for him to camp out. I asked the vicar "Has anything been done to help him find a shelter or something?" and he gave me this 'E tu?' look and explained that the homeless guy wanted to stay there. And then I found out that the vicar reacted like that because so many of the congregation had been complaining about the homeless guy. And not in the "how unfair that he doesn't have a better place to live" sense, but in an "ugh, smelly homeless guy in my church hall!" sense. Did I mention that this took place in Advent? The vicar made a rather pointed speech about Mary and Joseph and the stable. I liked that vicar.

The music was wonderful, though. All Byrd and Tallis and Victoria.