| Baptisms, Thanksgivings & Confirmations |
| Getting the right start in the Christian Life! |
| It is not always easy to know when someone starts out in their Christian life. We like to celebrate it together, but what’s the best way? Making the right choices for you and for your Christian family is what this page is all about. Then you will have peace of mind about the two key signs Jesus commanded his church to keep doing: baptise people, and remember him by taking bread and wine (communion). If you are an adult and considering baptism and/or confirmation, scroll down to Question 5. |
Question 1: Should I get baby ‘done’? |
| NO! There’s not a lot of point sprinkling a baby with water if neither you nor the godparents will help them grow up as a Christian. It’s too hard a journey for a baby to make alone… but you could take them to J-Team (Sunday School) here to help, and you can encourage them by coming along to church yourself. |
Question 2: Could I get my baby baptised? |
| Of course! It’s a great thing to bring a baby to church to receive them into the family of God and show how you intend to teach them to live a Christian life. The church family will all pray with you, and through the children’s and youth ministries help you to bring up your family well. |
Question 3: What if I just want to celebrate their life and have a party? |
That’s great! If you want to come and thank God for your new baby we’d love to celebrate with you. We have a special service called a
‘Thanksgiving for the Birth of a Child’ which you can still invite friends and family. There you can thank God for his gift of a baby, pray for his help, but not have to make promises you are not yet ready to make. |
| Question 4: What if I want them to make their own choice later on? |
| That’s fine, and sounds quite admirable. Everyone needs to decide to follow God for themselves later on in life. We can offer a dedication service along the lines of the thanksgiving (above). But remember the key biblical truth: “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:6) and that God knows his children from the time that they are in their mother’s womb (Psalm 139). Above all don’t get sucked into the lie that you don’t have a responsibility to bring your child up to know God. If you don’t teach them, the TV will. Perhaps Baptism is the place to start (see also the service of Confirmation and Re-affirmation of Baptismal Vows to see how each person has to make God’s choice their own later on in life). |
| Question 5: What about grown ups? |
| The key thing for any Christian to do is obey Jesus. That means (amongst other things) making baptism your own and regularly taking bread and wine to remember him. These days many people still need to get baptised as adults. Maybe they came from another religion, or another sort of church or only found out about Jesus later on in life. It may even be that their parents decided it was best to leave it up to themselves. In that case, when they become a Christian the first thing that they need to do is get baptised. At St Judes we can offer immersion in water - which is brilliant as it shows how we died to our old life (buried under water) and get resurrected (out of the water) into our new life. It is also great fun visually. But if people need to be sprinkled (eg. for health reasons), then we can use the Font still. We almost always get people to say a little about what has happened to them in a service. It’s saying ‘Jesus is your Lord’ that is the key to all of this initiation, not having a bath or a wash! |
| Question 6: I was christened as a baby, can I go through the waters of baptism now I’m a believing adult? |
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| If you have already been baptised then the next step is to make a public stand that this faith is your own now, done through Confirmation (see Question 7). Occasionally though it may be right for people to have a dramatic chance to show how God has changed their lives before confirmation. In these cases we may be able to offer a special service called a ‘Re-affirmation of Baptismal Vows’. This also involves getting very wet as a sign of being washed clean by Jesus. It may be especially appropriate if you were ‘Christened’ (baptised as a baby), but never brought back to church and so didn’t get the chance to grow up in God’s family; or if you feel you went such a long way away from God that you need to start again. It’s not a second baptism, but a wet all over celebration that God didn’t give up on you since you first got prayed for. God was still at work answering the prayers of His Church. Then do get confirmed and commissioned to be part of the outreaching life of His wonderful church. |
| Question 7: Confirmation? What’s all that about? |
Confirmation is the normal route to take following on from baptism or a re-affirmation of baptismal vows. No-one can be baptised twice, but if you have grown up progressively knowing about God and gradually trusting him and putting him first, it is normal to want to publicly say YES! He is my boss. We do this at confirmation – a great and grand ceremony with the Bishop, where he will normally splash you with water to remind you that you were baptised and must now follow Jesus. He will also pray for you to be confirmed with the Holy Spirit, to make sure that you know God’s life operating in your life!
The Start Course is used to prepare people for baptism or confirmation and those who have taken part in it have found it to be beneficial in their journey of faith in Jesus Christ. |
| Further Information |
| If you have further questions and/or want to explore the possibility of getting baptised/confirmed, please contact us. |
