Stories From The Tank
If you’re not a part of the Summit Church, y0u may not know that we’ve stumbled upon what has become an annual tradition. For the last couple of years, we’ve offered an instant baptism following all of our services at all of our campuses. We provide clothing, towels, and a thorough interview with a trained baptism counselor. (We also provide incredibly funky water by the time the day is over that probably hosts more parasites than a third world outhouse, but maybe that’s just my inner germophobe talking.)
But yesterday, we celebrated baptism with 79 people at our Brier Creek Sunday campus, and 159 baptisms church wide. I was able to be a part of many of those, and these are just a few of the stories I saw playing out…
- Ron is in his late 40’s / early 50’s, and is a brand new believer in Jesus. Once he was baptized, he helped baptize his wife, because he wanted to signify his desire to lead her spiritually.
- Norine is a single mom who moved to the Triangle on January 15th and started attending the Summit the next Sunday. She has four high school / college age daughters. Norine was baptized yesterday…along with three of her girls.
- We baptized a Duke nursing student who moved here from California in August. When I asked her story, she said, “Long story short…I’ve run out of excuses. It’s time for me to do this.”
- And in one of our last baptisms of the day, a girl climbed into the tank to be baptized by Omar King, our new venue pastor. They immediately recognized each other from when they’d worked together at O2 Fitness. The look on Omar’s face to see a co-worker come to Christ? Priceless.
I baptized a new friend from Kenya who is a student at UNC….along with a huge number of international students who moved from death to life. There were several sets of siblings who were baptized side-by-side together. Small group leaders baptized their small group members who’d given their lives to Jesus. College ministry leaders baptized scores of their own students. David Thompson, one of our pastors, got to baptize his oldest daughter Caroline.
It was an incredible day.
I’m thankful to be a part of a church where baptism is celebrated often. More than that, I’m thankful to serve a savior who was buried and rose again…not just as symbolism, but as reality.
So how about it, Summit? What were your favorite baptism stories from yesterday? Comment below.
Doing my first baptisms. It’s a weird, awesome feeling – I loved asking people if they believed Jesus had done everything required to save them, and if they’d submit to Him as Lord, willing to go where ever He said to go, and do whatever He said to do. Unflinchingly, one guy told me “Of course!” as if any other response would be crazy. You can’t beat that with a stick.
I had the privilege of witnessing my 20 year old grandaughter, Rebekah, being re-baptized after having a new reality of Christ Jesus as her LORD and SAVIOR bringing new life to her and stirring in her heart to go to Africa. Glory to God!
It would be impossible to narrow it down to one story. The older gentleman who baptized his wife was absolutely incredible – what an example to us younger guys! My heart was really joyful thinking about the single mom(s) who were baptized…just knowing that their ENTIRE family tree is changed from this point on because of Christ is phenomenal. Words can’t even begin to describe the power of the Spirit yesterday. My only question is: why is my faith so small to think that the exact same thing cannot be done the other 364 days a year?!? Yesterday sparked a new fire in my heart to see ppl come to Christ – after all, it is GOOD NEWS!!!
I became a follower in 2004- and was baptized at Summit yesterday. If you (Danny) hadn’t come into the store I was managing two years ago, I wouldn’t have come to Summit. It has changed my life. Enough was enough, and yesterday, I PUBLICALLY claimed Christ!! Thank you so much Summit Church!! Also, let’s not talk about the germy water. I went after the 11 o’clock service and there had already been a lot of bodies in that water….
I was blessed to do the baptism counseling of a girl whose parents are Jewish and Catholic… she was led to Christ through some teammates at college and Athletes in Action leaders. Her baptism was a very public statement, not just in the way it was for everyone, but because her mother of a different faith came to watch.