Andrew Turner of Crossover reflects in his Sacred Agents blog
One of the beautiful strengths of the Baptist movement is our conviction that all believers are priests. Within those four words are numerous deep truths around access to God through Christ, participation in mission and ministry, and responsibility in the church. Everyone has a part to play.
Everyone Has a Part to Play
But they don’t play it equally. As in a Shakespeare, one actor has a hundred lines and another has two. One may play four different parts, another is simply a tree. Jesus’ parables of responsibility often feature uneven participation, too. One servant’s entrusted with ten talents, another five, and another one. So uneven participation is not surprising – even among those who’ve been given the same amount of lines or talents, some give everything they’ve got, and some don’t.
We Baptists rightly love our culture of volunteerism – no one is forced to give anything – it’s all given freely from the heart. This is lovely, but it can also have a shadow side.
Pillars of Your Church
There are some roles, like Treasurer or Worship Coordinator that are complex and involved and pretty much require a super-volunteer. But who has that much time to give? It’s the rich (who can live off reduced paid-work hours), the active-retired, the under-employed, uni students during summer, and those doing court-ordered community service.
These are the ones who have the time to be pillars of your church. Not so much the single parent, the small business owner or the full-time worker. Now there are some beautiful saints among the former list. But the criteria you really want to be using for such important roles has more to do with spiritual maturity and gifted capability than simple availability.
Supporting the Supports That Need Support
So a church can look wider in its search for pillars, if it is willing to look for supports that need support. If your church pillar needs to be so strong they can stand alone, you’re building a culture of self-sufficiency and stoic independence – not conducive to healthy church community?
Staffing is not the only alternative to this. That single parent may be able to serve as a Worship Coordinator if the church provided them with some babysitting. For some roles the church may be able to provide an expense account, or pay for training, or carry some of the load in a hundred other possible ways.
Asking ‘Who is God calling to this Role?’
It’s more complex than simply asking ‘Who has time to do X? Only Jenny? Well, Jenny it is then.’
It begins with asking ‘Who is God calling to this role?’ and then ‘How can we release them into it?’ It’s complex, but so it the body of Christ. Beautiful community is quite interdependent, and it is a witness in itself.
Andrew Turner is the Director of Crossover for Australian Baptist Ministries. Thanks so much to all who have supported the Australian Baptist Easter Offering – which funds Crossover to Help Australian Baptists Share Jesus.
Andrew Turner of Crossover reflects in his Sacred Agents blog.
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. Acts 4:31
A Particular Kind of Boldness It takes courage on multiple levels to live as a representative of Jesus Christ. Courage before Christ himself, to have the nerve to say Yes, Lord, I’ll be your person in this place as opposed to Master,I know you are a hard man … so I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground.
It takes courage on multiple levels to live as a representative of Jesus Christ.
But courage also, of course, in the face of the world, because when we endeavour out in Jesus’ name, we’re likely to receive the same full gamut of different responses that Jesus himself received – welcomed and honoured through to mocked, despised and rejected.
Vulnerable to Rejection
Now this is nothing to do with success or failure. If you board a ship and share Christ, all 100 passengers may receive you happily. Or they may hate you and throw you overboard. Neither outcome necessarily means you’ve represented Jesus well or badly. Each could be a beautiful worship and service to Jesus. The point is, it’s out of your control. There is no way to program the mission of God so that an outcome is guaranteed. God refuses to simply reprogram the robots, but instead makes himself vulnerable to rejection. (Paradoxically, wonderfully, he wins our hearts through having his broken.)
The point is, it’s out of your control. There is no way to program the mission of God so that an outcome is guaranteed.
The Boldness We Need
So the boldness we need, and the boldness the first disciples sought and received from God, is not an imperviousness to rejection, like a coat of armour so strong we can simply crash through and feel no pain. On the contrary, it is the courage to feel that pain.
It’s interesting that the word gallantry has two main definitions: ‘Great bravery in battle’ and ‘polite and respectful attention in courtship’. Do you see how these are linked? Both involve the willingness to be shot down.
It’s interesting that the word gallantry has two main definitions: ‘Great bravery in battle’ and ‘polite and respectful attention in courtship’.
The boldness that sacred agents need by the Spirit is this Christlike form of boldness. It steps out from behind safe cover. Takes the first steps forward toward the other because they have God’s attention and God’s respect. Is prepared to suffer pain, but it takes pains not to inflict it.
Asking God for Boldness
The more we can take that posture and those steps in all the places God sends us, the more likely we are to in fact receive a very positive response. So let’s spend less time calculating our chances and more time asking God for his kind of boldness. If you’re thinking of inviting someone to church, or Alpha etc – worry less about whether they might say no, than about how their life may be if no one invites them at all.
Andrew Turner is the Director of Crossover for Australian Baptist Ministries. Thanks so much to all who have supported the Australian Baptist Easter Offering – which funds Crossover to Help Australian Baptists Share Jesus. It’s not too late to still contribute if you haven’t.
Andrew Turner of Crossover reflects in his Sacred Agents blog.
I blinked and had to look at the number a second time: 34 percent! Each year we gather the number of baptisms reported by Australian Baptist state associations, and there was a 34 percent increase from 2022 to 2023. Wow! But what to make of it?
It could be a whole range of things. Perhaps Australian Baptists got a whole lot better at reporting! (I imagine plenty of baptisms go un-counted, and while that’s frustrating for statisticians, it’s rather how things should be in a decentralised movement like ours.)
Or was it a post-Covid bump? Possibly, but I’m not convinced. Was it our National Baptism Week initiative? No, given the six-month lag in collecting the numbers, they’ll show up next year. I had been expecting a rise of over 20 percent simply based on what I was hearing anecdotally from pastors and leaders. But 34 percent is remarkable – what could possibly explain it?
Is the wave of baptisms another indication of the ‘turning of the tide’?
Could It Possibly Be Jesus?
Well, I think the answer could possibly be Jesus. Why on earth would so many people want to be baptised? Hang on, why would they not? Let’s remember that belonging to God’s family through faith in Christ is the normal and sensible thing given the unfolding of his kingdom, the place in it he offers, and the promise of his Spirit! We can get lost in studying the tea leaves of culture and economy to see whether people will or won’t like Jesus – and find that we believe more in the power of culture and economy than in the power of the gospel to captivate people of all cultures and economies.
That said, I do wonder whether wave of baptisms is another indication of the ‘turning of the tide.’ The church in the West has long been adjusting to the end of Christendom and the loss of (mandatory) popularity that entailed. Many have become resigned to endless decline – a narrative that’s entrenched itself even as church participation has increased.
New Theist Movement
As Western culture increasingly becomes a spiritual desert, however, should we be surprised that spiritual thirst increases?
As Western culture increasingly becomes a spiritual desert, however, should we be surprised that spiritual thirst increases? Along with stories of baptisms, I’ve been inundated with stories of ‘gate crashers’ – people (especially young adults) walking into churches that neither advertised nor invited them – and asking to be introduced to Jesus and Christianity.
Ten years ago the ‘New Atheist Movement’ held the floor among Western intellectuals, but it has died much faster than any church it mocked, and in its place we now see the ‘New Theist Movement’ – including such opinion-leaders as Jordan Peterson, Tom Holland and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (now openly a Christian). For more on this see Justin Brierley’s The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in Godbook and podcast.
So are we seeing the turning of the tide – even the beginnings of revival? It’s 20 years too early to say. But keeping our heads – indeed keeping our eyes on Jesus – our confidence to live for and witness to him should be based on him, rather than the fickle fashions of our culture.
Let’s be absolutely confident in Christ, and in pointing people to him, regardless of whether they’re likely to applaud or imprison us.
Andrew Turner is the Director of Crossover. Crossover exists to Help Australian Baptists Share Jesus.
Please support the Australian Baptist Easter Offering – which funds Crossover to Help Australian Baptists Share Jesus. For information on how to participate and run the offering, see crossover.org.au/offering.
Throughout our lives, events just seem to happen apparently at random. God teaches that there is nothing random about our lives and that He is always in control.
In times of weariness rest comes ‘beside quiet waters’, always aware that the purposes of our lives are to be accomplished.
It soon emerges that strength and struggle are the means by which we become capable of growing up and gathering character.
David, the future king of Israel, was led through a shepherd’s job, to acquire skills and character traits which would prove extremely useful to him in later life.
He was aware of this as shown in Psalm 23. In awe of God’s input into his life and affairs, he wrote ‘The Lord is my shepherd’. This was his Ode to the Shepherd.
Of all the people in the world, he could speak with authority of this fact. Seeing the defeat of Goliath, in front of the Israeli army and King Saul.
He was just a lad then, a teenager. How could the pebble slung from his sling hit Goliath exactly in the right place, with such force as to kill him instantly. Such a strong and huge man! The major threat at that time to the baby nation of Israel. David instinctively knew the God of Israel had enabled him.
More than anything he began to think that the anointing he received was the new reality in his life. That the power of God was released in his declarations before Saul and his army. Somehow the words he spoke empowered the actions he took.
A resistless force!
A force that operated flawlessly without his trying. He realised it was the power of God almighty. His confidence grew enormously at this demonstration of power. Hereafter he was never again the demure youngest son of Jesse. Never again to be bullied by Eliab or any of his older brothers. He now had power in his spoken words.
David knew that the job of a shepherd was to totally care for sheep.
It taught him responsibility as he learnt to deal with their wayward natures. (Just as he had to deal with the men of Israel later when he was their King.)
Even though sheep often got in trouble by walking off on their own, he loved their gentle and placid nature. As their shepherd he provided for all their needs and kept them safe. Especially at night when predators were about in the dark. These sheep were not even his. They were his father, Jesse’s.
This psalm finds its source in that experience. I suspect he realised that the Lord was doing the same for him, in his life, as he did for his sheep, and he was grateful. No doubt reminding himself that the anointing he received was for God’s purposes and it made sense that everything he experienced was in accord with those.
The Creator of the universe wants to be an intimate friend with us.
At times when David was exhausted and weary of the whole job he would cry out to the Lord. Then he would be reminded that the hardships he endured now would prepare him for an extraordinary destiny! That is true for all of us.
He grew up in this relationship with God, which became intimate, mature and personal. They became good, trusted friends. He, the created, with the Creator.
Since Jesus opened the door for us, such an amazing relationship is now available to all of us believers. Difficult as this may be to accept, truly the Creator of the universe wants to be an intimate friend with us. A relationship such as David’s! What a thought! What a vision!
Even though David strayed a number of times from the ‘straight and narrow’, his friend the almighty God of the Universe never abandoned the relationship. David was only corrected by Him when it was absolutely necessary.
All of his needs were always met and provision for him was abundant. This impressed him to the point of declaring:
He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul… Psalm 23:2-3 (NKJV)
In trusting, he must, like us, have wondered often where he was being led to.
This special relationship with God, based on the evidence, found expression in his whole life and affairs. He then lists many of the major events in his life where the road ahead looked awful, but then saying in the next verse: He restores my soul.
God kept him morally upright for His name’s sake; though David was reluctant at times. When threatened by having to walk through the ‘valley of the shadow of death’, he feared no evil.
He knew that God was with him as he says, ‘Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me’. The rod and staff being a means of support and defence.
Before we wish that we were David, remember he was exposed to extreme life events which would have taken all his acumen to survive. (We are reminded of him being pursued by King Saul and having to hide from his continual jealous wrath).
David then notes, in wonder, God’s preparing a table before him though surrounded by enemies. Historically, this happened literally many times. Ever since he was anointed with oil by the prophet of Israel, ‘You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Psalm 23:5 (NKJV)
He could not be happier at that moment and is prompted to say:
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23:6 (NKVJ)
This is all we ever wish to do!
The Lord is involved in every aspect of our lives.
You could say: How could this apply to us? He was anointed and God seemed almost visibly present and looking after him!
We can and do say that with Jesus in our hearts we have the equivalent and an even better provision. All the things David said are now equally true for us. Of course, he was one of the very few who could experience God’s presence at all times before the Messiah came.
Whilst God had to be ‘about’ David; Jesus is actually in us and will never forsake or leave those who have accepted Him as their Saviour. Really a much better deal!
This psalm does show us how involved the Lord is in every aspect of our lives although perhaps not as often as demonstrated with David. Maybe we are not as physically surrounded by enemies who seek to devour us, but even so, we are surrounded by enemies we cannot see but which can be, and often are, equally deadly.
The most poignant observations David makes come at the end of this wonderful Psalm. Acutely aware of God’s presence in every aspect of his many struggles, he is moved to cry out: ‘You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Psalm 23:5 (NKJV)
Such an expression of awesome and exceeding joy. I often wonder why we do not declare that more often. For us it is equally true. We just have to accept it by faith and then have it!
He ends with an exultant exclamation:
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And Iwill dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23:6 (NKJV)
A confident statement. A confidence based on experience.
For us who are still here, we should find real encouragement and even peace in this public declaration. An awareness of similar life experiences and a Presence, which makes it often obvious that He has intervened in our lives. To save us from ourselves, most likely.
What David said had direct bearing on the outcome of his actions
Often overlooked is the fact that David was quite aware that what he said had a direct bearing on the outcome of his actions. Classic is the case of the actions he took and what he said when he took on Goliath. Then follow a series of events so invaluably instructive for us now. Nothing has changed much since then in human attitudes and beliefs.
Firstly, his brother Eliab, apparently suspicious of his baby brother saying that he knew David to be proud and insolent and that the real reason he came was to see the battle (1 Sam 17:28).
Eliab did not know that this was the beginning of David’s ministry to the state of Israel. That he was really led by the Lord God. David’s confidence, particularly for one so young, is led to say to those just standing about:
What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 1 Sam 17:26 (NKJV)
King Saul said:
You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.” 1 Sam 17:33 (NKJV)
King Saul was quite unable to scare David into abandoning this ‘silly’ adventure in his eyes.
A sense of abandonment to a positive outcome rests entirely on trust
Our life lessons come from what David then said, in faith, to the King:
Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.”
Moreover, David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. 1 Samuel 17:34-37 (NKJV)
This demonstration of sheer faith in his companion the Lord God, should not be any different in its application to our lives now. We too have this presence within us to be utterly relied on. This is a sense of abandonment to a predictable and positive outcome rests entirely on trust. A reliance, a faith or trust we have guaranteed within each saved believer in Jesus.
The process: David spoke it; he believed it absolutely; he did it and the result was what he expected, was there.
The whole of this psalm is testimony to the wonder of His grace, love and kindness.
May God bless you always,
Frans
Frans Ammerlaan attends Sassafras Baptist. He is a published Author, Linguist, Journalist and Student. He plans to publish a book of devotionals he has written, this one included.
Greetings from the Baptist Mission Australia team. We are so grateful for the partnership of Tasmanian Baptist churches as we share in God’s love for the world together.
As a state leader and missiologist for Baptist Mission Australia, I am keenly aware of cultural diversity throughout the world. What I am learning about, however, is the significance of our rising intercultural Baptist family right here in Australia. We believe this presents us with a significant opportunity to join with God in mission across cultural difference here and abroad.
Here’s the wonderful news. Our gospel does not need to be understood in English to be authentic. Sounds obvious, but how often we really contemplate the multicultural genesis of our faith? Unlike many other faiths and some religious traditions, we have no holy language reserved for our spiritual message. The Good News for us as Christians is the fact of the incarnation – God meeting us in our own places, cultures and languages.
This world altering Christmas event has profound implications for our mission.
Jesus arrives in a diverse context, layered with different languages, world views and mythologies. Jump forward in the story and Pentecost is a breakthrough in human religious experience.
“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Acts 2:4 (NIV)
Imagine the scene when, in this multicultural setting,
…each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Acts 2:6-12 (NIV)
We are Intercultural Australian Baptists
What does this mean for us in Australia as we pursue mission near and far? Just last month the leaders of the Baptist State Intercultural Communities met together. They confirmed that the growth and vitality of these communities is part of the transformation of Australian Baptist demographics.
Here are some numbers to illustrate the percentage of Intercultural Communities in state Baptist churches:
More research needs to be carried out across our Baptist communities, but these numbers should pique our interest about what God is up to in our movement.
We may well echo the question asked by those present at Pentecost – What does this mean? I’m coming to the belief that it means we have an opportunity to learn from our non-English background brothers and sisters about how to meaningfully engage their kin here in Australia and in their countries of origin. It means we have an opportunity to trust new pathways of mission partnership that increase sustainability and impact. It means we can all better anticipate – and perhaps even experience a foretaste of – the magnificent future described in Revelation:
I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing…and heartily singing: Salvation to our God on his Throne! Salvation to the Lamb! Revelation 7:9-10 (Message)
We celebrate the fact that God has given us family across diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. We look forward to learning together about what all this means for God’s mission in the world – a world that God so loves!
Crossover Director Andrew Turner helps switch your mind from the Silly Season to Reality.
I love my weekly parkrun, but I don’t enjoy running. I enjoy the challenge. What I really enjoy is stopping running.
During the fifth and final kilometre, as my brain struggles for oxygen, weird stuff begins to happen. I talk to myself out loud without thinking, so it’s a surprise to hear ‘Come on Turner!’ and realise the voice is mine.
Time slows. The world shrinks until my sole focus is on that Sisyphean asymptote known as the finish line. When eventually I get there, there’s a further strange few minutes where I’m conscious of sanity gradually returning. Reality reappears. A weekend begins.
It’s interesting how Christmas sits in the very final week of a long year. It’s meant to be about the breaking in of ultimate reality – the Word became flesh and dwelt among us1 – but by Week 52, the room can be swimming a little. Jesus gets lined up with elves and tinsel, fir trees and reindeer. It’s called the Silly Season for a reason, and we’re ready to suspend reality for a week or three to taste an idealised world where work is rare and cricket plentiful.
So how can we be sensible enough to know we need rest, but also awake enough to the capital-R Reality of the inbreaking Kingdom? How do we keep it from just seeming like a dream?
Do it well
One way to do this is by Adventing well. Advent reminds us that the Kingdom has been coming in off the long run. It’s a dawning, not a random lightning flash that leaves you wondering whether you only imagined it. Come, thou long expected Jesus.
Another is by Christmasing well. Read the story as a news story and pinch yourself – this has really happened. The hopes and fears of all the years are met – are met – in Thee tonight!2
The hopes and fears of all the years are met – are met – in Thee tonight!
Phillips Brooks
And finally, let’s New Year well. The return to school, work or other mundane rhythms are no longer a doom, because they’ve been put in a new perspective. In Christ, we find that that Reality doesn’t bite, it kisses! Our Messiah comes not to condemn the world but to save it! Not to extort productivity out of us, but to offer an easy yoke! Not as a disgusting medicine only palatable if mixed with elves and tinsel, but living water! Not to mete out our wages, but to offer us gifts!
Christ is not blind to or immune from the world’s pain, nor should we be. (Lenting well is next.) But he shows us that it’s a passing nightmare, not our defining reality. So we approach the new year driven by hope rather than dread, knowing that our Hope is not a Sisyphean asymptote, but closer than ever and certain to arrive.
Launch event: Tuesday 5th March at the Tasmanian Baptist Pastors’ Muster, Hobart Contact Jenna Blackwell (jenna@tasbaptists.org.au) to find out more.
Study in Tasmania, in Your Church
Do you . . . sense God’s call to ignite your faith? Want to dig deeper into Christ? Long to serve God more fully and experience transformation and liberation in your life? If you answer YES! to one or more of these questions, we have some exciting news for you.
Soon, you can join with fellow Baptists from across Tasmania in a unique six-month training program.
Whether you just left school or are retired, employed or unemployed, beginning a life of faith or well along the journey. If you need a change, desire to find God’s direction, or just to learn, this is a wonderful opportunity!
The College will provide a pathway to undergraduate, graduate ministry and theological qualifications
The training is part of the newly established Frank W Boreham College recently set up by Tasmanian Baptists. The College will provide a learning journey in Tasmania, specific to Tasmania, taken alongside fellow Tasmanian Baptists.
Ultimately, the College will provide a pathway to undergraduate, graduate ministry and theological qualifications through partnerships with Whitley College, Melbourne and Kairos University in North America.
Those who successfully complete the six-month course will obtain an Undergraduate Certificate in Divinity with the Melbourne University of Divinity, and go on to further study if they desire.
CONTACT US! Use the Contact form below to register your interest.
Why “Frank W Boreham” College?
Frank W Boreham (1871-1959) is one of the best-selling Australian authors of all time and perhaps its least known.
He was pastor at Hobart Baptist Church from 1906-16, serving his people through the difficult early war years. During that time he began a biographical series for the Mercury newspaper which, over the next 40 years, covered 2000 people.
He edited the Southern Baptist, and later the weekly Australian Baptist, and in 1910 became President of the Tasmanian Baptist Union. Between 1912 and 1959 he contributed 2500 editorials to the Mercury.
His life’s work of 80 publications included religious works, homiletic essays and novels and sold over one million copies.
For more information, or to express your interest, please send us a mesasge here:
Andrew Turner of Crossover reflects in his Sacred Agents blog.
I’ve been working on baptism resources lately, and it’s mainly straightforward. But there are curly issues too, like the question, “When is a person ready to be baptised?”
There are extreme answers to this. Some denominations say ‘At birth!’ Others, concerned about post-baptism sin, have concluded ‘Just before death!’ You’ve likely narrowed it down somewhat from those extremes, but the question remains.
If we baptise people on their first interest in Jesus, how do we know it isn’t merely a crush? Six weeks later they might be into Buddha or basket-weaving. It’s not a new phenomenon – the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13) speaks of flash-in-the-pan believers as one of four main types of people who hear the gospel.
But if we delay, how long? For there’s another type (thorny ground) who hang around much longer but in the end are similarly unproductive. And Jesus’ next Parable (The Wheat and Weeds) speaks to the difficulty of discerning which is which anyway.
Baptism, historically
In the 3rd to 5th Centuries, churches enrolled new believers into several years of instruction in faith and morals. Their way of life was closely observed. The final hurdle was to learn the creed and be able to recite it by heart. Then baptism. There’s something admirable about the commitment to intentional discipleship, but there’s something troubling too.
The scandal and wonder of the gospel is that people can be reconciled to God instantaneously. The returning prodigal isn’t required to spend a few years in the workers’ quarters, proving his reformation. He gets the ring of family-belonging only five minutes after turning up in rags.
The scandal and wonder of the gospel is that people can be reconciled to God instantaneously.
Andrew Turner, Crossover
Learning vs Earning
Discipleship is a process, certainly. But it’s at our peril that we shape it (or allow it to be perceived) as a staircase up to acceptance with God and inclusion with his people.
So what’s the choice? Shall we be casual, or die-hard? Lax, or strict?
It needn’t be so binary. Why not have a rigorous system for strengthening new believers, but place baptism at the start rather than the end?
There’s a new life to learn, but it’s not something we earn. Dallas Willard aptly put it, ‘Grace is not opposed to effort, it’s opposed to earning.’
When the Ethiopian eunuch says ‘There’s a pool of water – what’s to stop me being baptised?’ we don’t see Philip answering, ‘Well you’ve only passed the Isaiah exam.’ But neither does the New Testament see disciple-making as dipped-and-done. Baptism has always been an initiation – a start line.
Some will start and then stumble. But the danger of baptising someone who may fall away is vastly outweighed by the danger of withholding baptism because they might. It is best, I think, to baptise all who are willing to follow Jesus . . . straight into a supportive and disciplined community.
Andrew Turner is the Director of Crossover. Crossover exists to Help Australian Baptists Share Jesus.
Neighbourhood carol singing in the streets of Newstead
10am Sun 18th Dec
Carol singing in the church grounds, followed by a BBQ lunch. BYO Salad to share. Everything else supplied. Giving Tree envelopes supplied for giving to City Mission
9:30am Sun 25th Dec
Christmas Day Service Christmas offering to Baptist World Aid
