And the preacher said...

When I finally received a response from Pastor P (conveniently after he had baptised my son), here’s what he said. I cut out the blah blah blah “our church is so wonderful” bit to get to the crux of the problem. Incidentally, my older son views Pastor P as a leader and a businessman, the congregation as followers and as “workers.” The Pastor, he notes, is the only person ‘interpreting’ the Bible on his own. For this, he makes “tons of money.”

Dear Ms. M*****:
“A couple of items I would like to note. We have a process for all individuals prior to baptism. This includes a hospitality room experience where trained men and women inquire about a person’s spiritual journey and their desire to indicate next steps in that journey. Each conversation begins with simply talking. At times it leads to a prayer experience with that person in the hospitality room. For those that indicate a spiritual decision, we desire to be thorough and good listeners. We too agree that a person needs to make this decision by themselves trusting God’s leadership upon the heart, soul and mind, not any other influences…
…I received a note from our Children’s minister this morning indicating that he met personally with T****, his father, and your son R****** last Friday. During this 30 minute conversation, our minister was able to listen to Travis’ questions/answers. His father indicated the conversation brought clarification regarding the decision he had indicated at a previous moment.
The decision to schedule his baptism was affirmed at that time."

The obvious question is, who is really getting “baptized” here: father or son? How does T*****’s father ”indicate” that “the conversation brought clarification regarding the decision he had indicated at a previous moment.” Yikes! What, exactly, does that mean? Did my Ex-H (ex-husband) say, “OK! T***** now understands the decision he made at a previous moment.” (Interesting choice of words: previous moment. It sounds so fleeting.) And shouldn’t T***** speak for himself, if a person is truly to make this choice for himself (as Pastor P notes)?

The church has more to reap from baptism than the baptized. The initiation of believers solidifies the membership in the church, the feeling of belonging to the congregation and the responsibility to support the preacher and the house of god. Amen.