Our community held our very first baptisms and community picnic today. It was an incredible time.
We began our morning with our Sunday worship service. That went extremely well. Then all who could attend the afternoon activities caravanned from the church to County Park. Leading that many cars that were being piloted by people who didn’t know where our chosen spot in County Park was exactly (we needed a spot where we could do full immersion baptisms), was no easy feat, with city traffic lights and whatnot. Ben Martin led us all there in excellent fashion. Thank you, Ben! I know that wasn’t easy!
Once we all arrived at our spot, we prayed, baptized two wonderful people after we heard their testimonies, then ate a bit of good food and then played a game of full-tackle football. Nothing says male bonding like a game of tackle football. Overall, the day was awesome. Two people were baptized. I was blessed to baptize my own son! That was a moment I shall never forget. Dave was also baptized. His story is awesome and he is the epitome of grace and devotion. I love these two men. I was honored to baptize them. May God richly and ridiculously bless you both!
We have several more baptisms coming up in the not-so-distant future. I’m honored and blessed to be a part of what God is doing in our community and city. It’s good.
Basically, this was the very first time our church community threw an event for ourselves. We are always so busy reaching out into the community, and that is good too, but it is also good to spend some healthy time building the foundation of what is already there. If that is neglected, it will totally affect a community efforts to reach out to those who are living far from the Kingdom of God. Both are – and should be – the priority. Balance is key. We grabbed hold of that key today. It was good.
I want to say a great big thank you to everyone who came to the event. I especially want to thank all of those who brought food, music, prayer, conversation, and friendship. I want to give huge kudos to Jared, the man who ran the grill for everyone today! Thank you, brother!
Thank you Keith for fulfilling your pastoral call and helping me baptize!
Thank you Sigs for leading us in worship during the baptisms!
Thank you Barb King for putting it all together!
Thank you everyone for everything! I don’t want to miss anyone, but I’m sure I have! You all are amazing people! Thank you for journeying with us. And for all of those who couldn’t make it to the afternoon festivities, and there were many, we missed you! There will be a next time!
We are planning on doing this once a month with our community. We are also throwing cookouts all summer long. Everyone is invited to those.
With that, I’m going to relax and recover. That football game almost killed me. LOL! I realized that I am seriously out of shape (reading, writing, and meting people in restaurants and cafes will do that to a guy) and I am going to work on that starting tomorrow, for sure. Our team won the football game, and I plan on my team winning the rest from this point forward. Time to get in shape. :)
More images from our community gathering can be perused at Inner Metro Green.
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