Baptisms & Discipleship
I love baptism days for a lot of reasons: the celebration of new life in Christ, the unity of declaring what we believe together, and seeing someone get baptized surrounded by people who have discipled and supported them.
During a baptism, Lead Pastor, Terry said something that got me extra excited. He said:
“You only get baptized once, but you can enter into these baptism waters over and over again if you are making disciples. We should all be itching to get in here.”
The unique way that we do baptism at Restoration is that when someone gets baptized, they aren’t alone in the water with the lead pastor (even though Terry is great). The people who are in the waters, participating in the baptism as well, are the ones who have walked with that person as they have become a follower of Jesus and who are discipling them to become more like Christ.
Jesus gave his disciples this command in Matthew 28:18-20:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Through the rest of the Bible, we see the disciples living into this charge and it changed the entire world.
I was fired up even more after Sunday that this great commission is still so relevant for present day disciples of Jesus as well (aka us).
We are to be intentional in going to those who are not yet followers of Jesus and sometimes that means getting out of our comfort zones. But we’re not just called to be nice to people, but to invite people into the same life that we have found in Christ. Then we could have the joy and honor of being with them in the waters of baptism. But the journey doesn’t end at baptism, there’s still a lot of discipling to be done.
Jesus calls us to journey with people towards him.
So who are you going to? Who are you praying will follow Jesus? Who are you discipling?
It’s easy to read those words and go, “yea, yea” and then just delete this email. Don’t do that. Seriously…. Name at least one person right now either in your head or write it down.
My dream is that everyone at Restoration would have at least one person that they are pursuing who is not yet following Jesus and one person who is already a Christian that they are intentionally teaching to obey Christ more.
Imagine how Jesus would change our community (and even the world) if that were true of our Church..
So, what is your next step? Here are some ideas:
Excited to see all the baptisms in Restoration’s future,
Kayla Willis
Discipleship Pastor
During a baptism, Lead Pastor, Terry said something that got me extra excited. He said:
“You only get baptized once, but you can enter into these baptism waters over and over again if you are making disciples. We should all be itching to get in here.”
The unique way that we do baptism at Restoration is that when someone gets baptized, they aren’t alone in the water with the lead pastor (even though Terry is great). The people who are in the waters, participating in the baptism as well, are the ones who have walked with that person as they have become a follower of Jesus and who are discipling them to become more like Christ.
Jesus gave his disciples this command in Matthew 28:18-20:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Through the rest of the Bible, we see the disciples living into this charge and it changed the entire world.
I was fired up even more after Sunday that this great commission is still so relevant for present day disciples of Jesus as well (aka us).
We are to be intentional in going to those who are not yet followers of Jesus and sometimes that means getting out of our comfort zones. But we’re not just called to be nice to people, but to invite people into the same life that we have found in Christ. Then we could have the joy and honor of being with them in the waters of baptism. But the journey doesn’t end at baptism, there’s still a lot of discipling to be done.
Jesus calls us to journey with people towards him.
So who are you going to? Who are you praying will follow Jesus? Who are you discipling?
It’s easy to read those words and go, “yea, yea” and then just delete this email. Don’t do that. Seriously…. Name at least one person right now either in your head or write it down.
My dream is that everyone at Restoration would have at least one person that they are pursuing who is not yet following Jesus and one person who is already a Christian that they are intentionally teaching to obey Christ more.
Imagine how Jesus would change our community (and even the world) if that were true of our Church..
So, what is your next step? Here are some ideas:
- If no names come to mind, pray that the Lord will show you who to pursue.
- Ask someone to hang out and get to know their story
- If someone comes to mind and you already have a close relationship with them, consider asking them to get together regularly and talk about following Jesus.
Excited to see all the baptisms in Restoration’s future,
Kayla Willis
Discipleship Pastor
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