Tag Archives: Baptism
Parent involved baptism
Posted on 19. May, 2008 by Kenny.
Several weeks ago I wrote this post about involving parents in significant moments in their child’s life.
Yesterday I had a really cool moment. I don’t know that it would have happened if I hadn’t been thinking so much about what family ministry really means.
Like I posted yesterday, we baptized a lot of people yesterday. After one of the services, a family was directed to me. They had a little girl who wanted to be baptized. She was six. I got down on one knee and talked with her about baptism. She had already make Jesus her Lord and Savior and her parents had already been talking to her about baptism.
I looked up at the dad. He was holding his younger daughter in his arms.… Read the rest
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Baptismpalooza
Posted on 18. May, 2008 by Kenny.
Today we had some baptisms at Gateway. I think it was the most fun I’ve ever had at a baptism service… and I really love baptizing kids!
Gateway Church doesn’t have a built in baptismal. In Texas, a lot of churches actually build them outside. They’ll build a fountain or other water feature that can be used as a baptismal throughout the year. For some reason, we don’t have one, so once the weather warms up, we bring out a big pool and baptize as many people as we can. Today it was just over 100! Woo Hoo!
This week I met with several families. It’s so important to me to meet with kids before they get baptized. I feel it’s:
- A great opportunity to connect with a family.
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Does it bother you that the same kid gets saved every week?
Posted on 20. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
Ha! If you’ve ministered to kids for any time, you probably got a kick out of this title!
Last week I was listening to an audio blog post on Steven Furtick’s blog. The blog was about how to give effective invitations. It was a great message, regardless of your position. He shared his advice and experience in the wake of Easter where his church saw over 500 people come to Christ. Absolutely amazing! There were so many great points worth hearing.
One thing did stick out to me in particular. Pastor Steven talked about how it had been his tendency to make it difficult for a person to come to Christ in order to ensure that they authentically made the decision.… Read the rest
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Out of our control
Posted on 18. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
The idea I blogged about yesterday is what I’ve been processing the most. I really like this idea a lot. But I naturally have some questions. Perhaps you did too.
1. It’s obvious that only a percentage of the parents will come back with their kids for the class. That isn’t fair to those kids. Wouldn’t it be better to give everyone an opportunity to decide now so that kids who really want this don’t fall through the cracks due to their parent’s unwillingness to participate.
2. Do I really want to trust this opportunity to parents who have absolutely no experience at all? What if they mess it up? What if the kids have questions that the parents can’t answer?
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How about equipping our parents?
Posted on 17. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
A few weeks ago I wrote about “The Essence of Orange” DVD from the reThink group. In this DVD, Reggie Joiner mentioned this very things I’ve been writing about. Since it was Orange, it was in the family ministry context. However, it made more sense to me than anything else I have ever done or heard.
*** Preface **** Now I could have heard this wrong or I could be off, but I think this is the gist of what he was saying.
All of us agree that we want parents to be more involved in the spiritual development of our kids. If asked though, most of us would probably admit that we were doing little to equip parents to spiritually lead their kids.… Read the rest
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Parent involvement?
Posted on 16. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
Amazing. I remember being the 20 year-old, part-time Children’s Pastor at a small church in Jenks, Oklahoma. A parent approached me with his 4th grade daughter (this did happen on more than one occasion) and said, “Mr. Kenny, my daughter want’s to receive Christ. Will you pray with her?”
I look at this situation differently now than I did 11 years ago. I said “Absolutely… let’s pray!” Now when I look back at this situation I see a different picture. It’s a little strange (but far too common). A grown man, a father, was handing off his child for me to share in the most important decision of her life. I understand. He probably saw this as my “job.” He also probably felt unqualified.… Read the rest
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Handling decisions with kids
Posted on 15. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
Yesterday I talked just a little bit about baptizing kids. Today I want to talk about inviting kids to come to Christ.
My philosophy on this has changed over the years, and even more over recent weeks… maybe. I still have some things to work out.
Earlier in my ministry I served in more traditional churches. They were churches that offered invitations every Sunday (at least almost every Sunday). As a children’s pastor I would do the same. Actually I’d typically offer some kind of invitation every 2-3 weeks. It’s just what we did.
However, as I began serving in churches that didn’t do traditional “alter calls,” I had to evaluate how I approached this with the kids. These churches that didn’t do “alter calls” understood there were many visitors that were still working out their faith.… Read the rest
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Children’s baptism
Posted on 14. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
I won’t deny it. I love praying with a child to receive Christ. It’s one of the things I love most about my job. Yeah, I also love to baptize kids. When I baptize them, I know I’ve had a chance to walk through this decision with the child and his or her parents. But what do I think is even cooler? When I get to stand by a parent as they baptize their own child. Over the years I’ve baptized hundreds of kids. Certainly it has been very special to me. Several of my facebook friends are kids I baptized years ago. Sometimes I’ve seen endorsements for a speaker/evangelist coming to speak somewhere that state the number of kids he’s baptized.… Read the rest
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I’ve been known to baptize anything that breaths…
Posted on 24. Apr, 2007 by Kenny.
I just had to share this one. I’ve requested the media team to rip this portion of the video so I can put it on this site… it’s just too funny.
I have hold children’s baptism services three times a year we’re we’ll baptized 20-40 kids each day. Outside of that, I usually get the honor of baptizing 2-4 kids a month. This last Sunday I was scheduled to baptize two girls and their mom. I met with them about 3 weeks earlier and had so much fun. This 6 and 8 year old loved Jesus so, so much. I don’t know if a person could love him more than they did. Mom and Dad were really doing a great job.… Read the rest
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