Outsourcing Baptism
From a Church Monopoly to a Family Business
Originally published August 2022
The title involves a little play on words because the truth is that the practice of baptism has already been outsourced to a “company” (we just happen to call that company the institutional church, or IC) when it belonged in the hands (literally) of the common people all along. Now it is time to outsource it back to everyday, ordinary family members and friends.
Let me preface this article with the disclaimer that there is absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever with being baptized by a pastor or church leader in a typical church, but let me just as emphatically proclaim there is also nothing wrong whatsoever with being baptized by non-clergy folks in any setting even if it doesn’t resemble a church building. We could gain something quite meaningful if we considered more baptisms in the latter method over the former. Let me explain.
Baptism is a Memory Maker
We want to keep the meaning of baptism at the forefront. Baptism is a memory maker. The point is to remind us of something. In the same way that a wedding does not cause love but celebrates a love that already exists, baptism does not cause salvation but celebrates salvation already available to all. Baptism does not make God love you. It reminds you that He already does. Although it has become a popular Christian sentiment to say “I asked Jesus into my heart,” baptism is not as much about that as it is reminding us that we are already in His.
Memory makers are usually associated with rites of passage in life. They are powerful moments for close relatives and friends to be directly involved in. Baptism, of all of these monumental experiences, includes profound truths that we want to remember for the rest of our lives.
What do we want to remember?
I am forgiven.
In the first few verses of the Gospel of Mark, John the Baptist comes on the scene preaching a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). Peter’s famous speech on the day of Pentecost concludes with a call to action, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 2:38).
Forgiveness is central to our relationship with God. We are reconciled to God, justified (made “just-as-if-I’d never sinned”) in God’s Presence. We have new standing because of the cross of Christ. “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (Romans 5:1-2).
Baptism reminds you that your sins are forgiven.
I have new life.
We remember that we are baptized into Christ and His death. We are symbolically buried with Him through baptism in order that we may be raised from the dead and live a new life. We are united with Jesus now and will be reunited with Him in resurrected life so death no longer has mastery over us. (See Romans 6)
I have a new family.
It is not difficult for a person to go underwater and come back up on their own. Technically, the act of baptism could be performed independently, but there is a good reason it’s not. We don’t baptize ourselves because it is designed to be a shared celebration. It is a family event because we are identified and accepted as children of the same Father.
The scriptural language can read as we are baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, we are baptized into the community of God, literally and figuratively. It is a shared act on purpose. Baptism reminds us that we are welcomed and adopted into His family. Our identity changes as we are His children. It is a sign of true unity through diversity better than anything we try to fabricate in our society. Anyone can claim to belong to this family. The right to be called children of God is offered to everyone.
Baptism helps to recalibrate the meaning of salvation away from mere acceptance of Jesus as “my personal Lord and Savior” to the social act of entering a family and becoming part of a body. It is my celebration and acknowledgment of being chosen and adopted. As people are baptized, they can appreciate how they have gained brothers and sisters in their local community and all over the world. It magnifies the inclusivity of God’s family. With people searching for belonging in so many other ways, baptism highlights our participation in the divine nature and becomes our symbol for uniting all of who we are with all of who God is.
How God Makes the Ordinary, Extraordinary
It’s worth a deeper dive into the cultural and historical context to unpack just how amazing it is that baptism is universally accessible. Baptism was not a new Christian invention once Jesus arrived. It was a familiar ritual used for purification and cleansing. Jews would often have to wash in a particular way to be religiously or ceremonially clean in order to bring a sacrifice to the temple. Immersion in a mikvah, or bath, was necessary to represent a change of status from unclean to pure. During the Second Temple period, while Jesus was alive on earth, ritual immersion, along with circumcision, could signify conversion to Judaism. So, baptism was well known before anyone was ever called a Christian.
Jesus, however, introduced a seismic shift in the understanding and use of baptism with His ministry.1 He gave new meaning to this ordinary act to make it extraordinarily relevant and impactful to everyone. Christ's followers saw a radical new truth in baptism that was not there before. Now, instead of baptism preparing us to enter a sacred space or preparing us to make a sacrifice, baptism reminds us that we are the sacred people and that Jesus is the final sacrifice. We make up the temple of God. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Baptism carries the essence of the Christian faith in an illustrative act. We are not preparing to DO; we are celebrating what has been DONE. No more sacrifices have to be made at all. The sacred space we want to occupy is wherever Jesus is, and He is not confined to buildings or structures. He is Immanuel, God with us. Baptism is not another step we take to get closer to God, but an expression of gratitude that God has come close to us. It is the realization that God has been closer than you think all along.
It is not a religious obligation of the law, but a relational act of love. We are not ascending to Him, but He has descended to us. To misunderstand this point is to misunderstand the entire faith. With a common, ordinary activity, Jesus demonstrates that instead of being hard to reach, God pursues us.
Furthermore, a certain level of ritual cleansing would have been reserved only for priests. But Jesus made it, with all of this significance, available to ALL. Male, female, Jew, Gentile, slave, free, everybody. Everybody! Again, baptism reminds us that we are all on equal ground with access to salvation. It breaks down hierarchy and status.
Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime...And the Bible Even Says So!
The Great Commission instructs disciples to baptize all kinds of people. Anyone who encountered Jesus could be baptized and baptize others. We are not only disciples but also disciple-makers. When we get baptized, we immediately become baptizers. In the New Testament, we have records of John the Baptist, Peter, Philip, Paul, and other disciples baptizing others. We may also note that Jesus often had His followers perform baptisms instead of doing it Himself. Regardless of their occupation or role in society, one was instantly qualified to baptize others as a follower of Christ. No formal clergy class existed yet in the emerging movement of Christianity. Everyone was on equal footing. Followers baptized other followers, who in turn, baptized other followers, and so on, including all who came to them in the Judean countryside, from all nations, more than 3000 people from diverse backgrounds. Men and women, Jews and Gentiles, individuals and households, rich and poor, any language, any race, anybody was baptized.
Remarkably, it seems unusual to us for someone other than the clergy to perform baptisms. In actuality, what would be a weird reading of Scripture is that only a special group or class within the church could carry out this act. That is how backward we are thanks to tradition. As Neil Cole points out, when you take baptism out of the hands of the ordinary Christian, you take disciple-making out of the hands of the ordinary Christian. It is kept simple and easily reproducible on purpose. It is authentic faith, not seminary or denominational credentials, that transmits the authority to baptize.
“The simple fact is the New Testament’s immediate and automatic response to the gospel was baptism.”
—You Don’t Have To Do That (page 153)
A Dad’s Delight
We’ve already mentioned the significance of entering God’s family, which is featured in baptism, but I want to conclude with a personal note that takes this point to another level. I had the wonderful privilege of baptizing my daughters, and I don’t want anyone else to miss out on this privilege because of some theological misunderstanding that makes you think you can’t do it.
There is an extra special profound meaning that I want to highlight as a father of girls. The original Greek word for adoption brings two thoughts together. It involves the word, not for child but for son, and the idea of placing (as in status). To adopt, then, is to give status as a son into a new family, which is why adoption is sometimes translated as “sonship” in the Bible. Baptism signifies adoption as a son of God, which brings full rights, a concept with serious implications in ancient Roman society.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:14-17, New International Version)
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29, New International Version)
The next chapter, Galatians 4, explains that God sent Jesus for this reason, to “redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” It goes on to emphatically state, “since you are a son, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:7, NIV).
Imagine being a woman or a servant or anyone in the first-century audience who had been discredited or made to feel less than in the eyes of society. Consider the power of this message.
“You are all sons of God.”
“You are all one in Christ Jesus.”
No one is looked down upon anymore. No one is above you, and no one is below you. Jesus is the great Equalizer. He brought an incredibly freeing reality. Jesus is the ultimate women’s rights activist. He took the most essential gift of ultimate abundant life, full salvation, and handed it freely to all girls, including my daughters 2000 years later. It is especially powerful to know they can approach God boldly.
And there is nothing that says you, as a parent, sibling, friend, or mentor, cannot baptize someone just because you are not an ordained minister in a church organization. Frankly, it’s not about the person baptizing anyway. The focus is on the gift it represents from God.
Arguably, John the Baptist and the forerunners and disciples of Jesus introduced the shift in the meaning of baptism, but it was still because of Jesus that the new understanding was even possible.