Why I Love Hotel Baptistries

When it comes to enjoying hotels I have two things working against me:

1) I'm a home-body. I like being in my own home, in my own room, in my own bed, etc.

2) I worked at a hotel for a little over two years and had about all I could take of a lifetime's worth of hotel experiences

But even I can admit that hotels can be nice from time to time. Especially when they have certain amenities. In most cases I like to have my ESPN. I prefer places that have FREE wireless internet access. Some of the nicest places I've stayed charge a fortune for using the internet. But I like the nicer places because they usually have quality mattresses and some of the best pillows I've ever allowed head to rest. But one of the amenities I have come to value the most, especially when it comes to youth trips, is a quality baptistry...or an indoor pool to most of you!

This weekend at Winterfest we were privileged to participate in another baptism. There is something so special and sacred about friends and family going into the waters together and surrounding the person who is about to be buried with Christ and raised to new life. Those who chose not to get into the pool gathered around its edges and witnessed the amazing transformation of choosing to live the Christ-life. In some ways it's the closest thing I've been able to experience that hints at what it must have been like for believers in Acts.

Maybe I'm bias to baptisms in pool contexts. After all I grew up in Florida and our mindset was... who needs baptistries when everyone's got a pool. I know it's not any less meaningful but somehow it doesn't proclaim the same message when we do it in the small "bathtub" baptistries. When everyone is in the water together there is beauty in the expression of community. It communicates on a whole other level that we as fellow believers are here to walk beside you, to share in your death, and to rejoice in your new life! It's hard really to even explain it adequately in words...but I believe it's a sacred moment that leaves God's fingerprints upon all our lives.

There weren't thousands of us, just 54. It wasn't Jerusalem at Pentecost, just the Ramada Inn at Winterfest. There wasn't a special formula or magical words on our part, but at least for those few moments...that hotel couldn't have been any more holy!

A First Time for Everything

This afternoon I was provided with a unique opportunity. I had the pleasure of witnessing a baptism. Just the three of us. Although that wasn't the unique part. The unique aspect involved who the person was...we'll call him Johnny. I'm not certain how old Johnny is but if I had to guess I might say somewhere in his sixties. He is a resident at a local nursing home. This morning we received a call from someone who works with Johnny on a regular basis who informed us that after several conversations between the two of them over a period of time, Johnny had made up his mind to be baptized. So this afternoon the two of them made their way up here to the church and together we ushered Johnny into new life with Christ.

It was a sweet moment really. See, Johnny has some limitations. He is mostly confined to a wheelchair because of problems with his legs. We had to struggle to help him up the stairs to access the baptistry. His friend Will playfully joked that it could be his therapy for the day! We got him to the top only to attempt the descent down into the waters. We made it halfway down the stairs into the baptistry when Johnny turned them into a water slide and slipped the rest of the way in. It was hard for him to manipulate his body in the ways needed to fulfill his heart's desire. But by the time he made it in you could see the excitement in his face. He went under an older, broken, physically limited man but came up a new creation with the joy of the LORD as his new strength.

Beautiful. Sacred. Intimate. And I was allowed the privilege to participate in the moment. When I first heard about it earlier in the day I was a little taken aback. I had never been asked to witness a baptism under these circumstances. But by the time we finished sharing the God-moment together...it was worth feeling uncomfortable and awkward...because here was a man who despite his age, despite his limitations, despite his lot in life...understood the simplicity of dying to self in order to be raised to life!

Special. Powerful. Humbling.

God be praised for another first!