Stories From The Tank

‘Twas an incredible weekend around the Summit Church. Hundreds of people celebrated baptism, signifying their new life in Christ. Here at the Brier Creek campus, we saw 99 people baptized over the course of six services. Here are just a few of their stories:

• Chris was raised in a cult, and for years didn’t trust any sort of organized religion. But the message on “putting the weight of glory on Jesus” struck a chord, and now he has a relationship with a Savior instead of more rules to follow.
• Chelsea is a pregnant teenager, weighing her options on what is best for her baby. Merriem and I had dinner with her and some of her friends just a few weeks ago. Seeing all of them there to support her? Amazing.
• Elena has been “doing life” with her small group for a while now. She made the decision to be baptized on Saturday night, but decided to wait until Sunday so she could make sure they were there for her. They were.
• Wayne has multiple sclerosis. His obedience in making the decision wasn’t quite as simple as walking down the aisle. It involved a long, slow, painful walk. It involved multiple men  helping him into the tank. But it was a beautiful thing to witness his obedience as well as the body of Christ serving him so well.
• A seminary student was baptized early in life, but realized that the symbolism of that baptism occurred before the reality of his relationship with Christ.
• Paul was baptized, and then helped to baptize his son Philip. Jim was baptized, then helped baptize his wife Lauren. Fathers baptizing sons and husbands baptizing wives? It doesn’t get any better than that.

Those were just a few of the stories I heard. How about you? Comment below.

(By the way, if you don’t attend the Summit and you’re skeptical of how we do mass baptisms (decision counseling, logistics, etc.) check out this earlier post.)