First Baptist Church of Hendersonville had been planning a Sunday morning baptism service for months, but they had no idea how many would show up to be baptized.
Bruce Raley, senior associate pastor, said, “We had been praying about this. We’ve had a lot of people who had no faith background or came from a different faith move here and begin attending our church. They had never understood or heard why a person should be baptized and how baptism is an act of obedience that follows salvation.”
As part of a series in the Gospel of Luke, Senior Pastor Bruce Chesser taught through the story of Zacchaeus. Verse 10 of chapter 19 points out that “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
That next step after salvation, he told the crowd, was baptism. He explained its meaning and the importance of doing so by immersion. He then challenged those wanting to step forward to meet him in the baptistry area.
He explained that being caught off guard wasn’t a problem, either. The church had swimsuits, hair dryers and towels at the ready.
The majority were adults and students. First Baptist requires children who have made a salvation decision to go through a new Christian class. Those who had done so and stepped forward were baptized Sunday. Other children who prayed to receive Christ that day will be baptized later.
Stories shared that day included those who had made a profession of faith but not been baptized and others who were baptized early in life and then saved. They wanted to get things in the correct order.