We opened with all the youth up on stage to lead a song we learned at camp called "Happy Day." It has hand motions, which are cheesy, but kind of fun.
(In case you're wondering, I'm on the left in the brown skirt, looking down. The matching shirts are our camp shirts. Click on the photo if you'd like to see it bigger.)
After everyone sang, one student stayed up there to speak a little about his camp experience, then give the welcome. Next was the camp video. One of our students owns his own production company (he's only 15!), and he put the video together for us. He did a fabulous job, too.
The rest of the service was a few more testimonies about camp experiences, a short drama bit, more singing, and then:
My husband preached! This actually wasn't his first time, but it was my first time to hear him. (He says he preached a lot when he was in a college-sponsored band/singing group that traveled each weekend to different churches. That was before I knew him.) He preached from Micah 6, which was one of the passages we studied at camp. He did such a great job, and I'm so proud of him!
The best part of the service was that we baptized a kiddo who became a Christian at camp. Talk about a great Sunday! We're so very proud of all our students.
3 comments:
This might be a stupid question, but how does baptism work w/ Protestants? Who can baptize? Does it have to be a pastor? Can you only be baptized once?
Allison, not all protestants have the same belief about baptism and what it means. Quoting from an old but still valid book, The Baptist Faith and Message, I can tell you what Baptists believe. "Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead."
Mama
My mom answered better than I probably would have! :-)
I think it depends on the church as to who can baptize. My church didn't used to have a baptistry, so we'd baptize in swimming pools. For a while there, they were allowing parents to baptize their kids, or friends to baptize friends. I think most churches tend to prefer ordained ministers to do the baptizing.
Someone suggested that Steven could baptize the kid on Sunday, but Steven wasn't comfortable with that, so the pastor did it.
The idea is to only be baptized once, but sometimes people decide to do it again if they've rededicated their life to the Lord. My observation is that it's usually someone who was baptized as a child, but never truly embraced the faith as his or her own. There's no rule against being baptized again, at least, not in Baptist churches.
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