|
Prayer for a Baptism
JESUS? Today's WORSHIP QUOTE is a special prayer for the occasion of Christian baptism. PRAYER FOR A BAPTISM Don't let this be simply a social occasion, Jesus. Touch the hearts of those present who associate Christianity only with superficiality and become accustomed to religious exercises devoid of integrity or real meaning. Someone is being baptized into your own life and death, Lord. Someone is being made a member of the church, your own body. Don't let this baptism be shunted off into a small corner of a big church, or into a quiet hour with a handful of people. Let this baptism be a principal part of the whole church's life, Jesus. Make us all realize that we are profoundly involved in it because someone is being ordained to a lifetime of discipleship and ministry in your spirit and name. - Malcolm Boyd, from ARE YOU RUNNING WITH ME JESUS: PRAYERS BY MALCOLM BOYD, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968, p. 112. [Once again this Sunday, our congregation will gather at the water to do what Christians do - "baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Like our regular observance of the Lord's Supper, we want this celebration to be both ordinary (what is normal, expected and even routine) and completely extraordinary (special, memorable and life-giving in every way). I continue to marvel how communion and baptism, acts of worship that are clearly supposed to draw us to Christ and to each other, are the two most controversial and therefore least unifying areas of Christian worship. Lord, show us a better way. Amen!] Have a great week, Chip Stam Pastor of Worship and Music Chapel Hill Bible Church Chapel Hill, North Carolina |