The Great Baptism Debate

When my husband and I first moved to Houston in 2001, we started immediately visiting churches here and there. We would become discouraged and weeks would pass between visits. Finally in February 2003, we found a church that we have fallen in love with and have maybe missed fewer than 10 Sundays in over two years. The primary reason that it took us so long to find a church is that we were raised with completely different church backgrounds, meaning we were used to different styles of worship. He was raised Lutheran and was used to a slower-paced regimented traditional type service. I, coming from a Pentecostal type background was used to a much more vibrant, spirited, turn-cartwheels-across-the-pulpit type service. So, we knew it would be a difficult search to find something that we both liked. Interestingly enough, we have settled into a Southern Baptist Church.

Now, although we have been faithfully attending, contributing to, and serving in this church for over 2 years, we have yet to join. The primary reason is because the church requires that you be baptized by submersion in a Baptist church in order to become a member. That means that both of us would have to be re-baptized to join. My husband cannot reconcile this in his heart. He was sprinkled as a baby in a Lutheran church and feels that if he did it again, it would mean that his first baptism “didn’t count”. I am willing to do it again because I was baptized as a baby and would like to do it again as a symbol of me making the decision to follow Christ rather than my parents making it for me. So, my husband has been praying and studying to figure out what we should do for about a year now. Apparently, Baptists don’t baptize babies and only consider baptism to be a symbol of what Christ has done in your heart. Therefore, you decide to be baptized when you are “old enough” to make that decision for Christ. Alternately, Lutherans baptize their babies because baptism is for the remission of sins. Since we are all born into sin, babies need to be saved through baptism. The more my husband learns about both denominations, the more he realizes that there are major philosophical differences on the subject of baptism. So, in all of this studying and praying, we have come to no conclusion and now the matter is becoming more complicated because we will soon be parents.

We feel that one of our primary responsibilities for this child is to make sure that he/she grows up in a Godly home and has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. My husband can’t imagine that we wait 8, 9, 10 years (as a Baptist family might) before the child is baptized. His heart tells him that that child needs to be baptized as a baby. He feels very strongly about this – and apparently his mother and grandmother do too. But, the thing is – if we have the baby baptized at his parents Lutheran church then, how do we raise the child in a Baptist church where he/she doesn’t learn the same things about baptism and its role in our faith? Plus, how do we keep going to this church that we are not members of? What does that teach the child? I don’t know how we fix this or what the right answer is. I am depending on my husband for leadership in this. I have faith that that Lord will reveal His truth to us in time for us to steer this child in the right direction.