Video 1 - Just Keep Holdin’ On

This older gentleman looks like he’d feel a whole lot better about going under if he can just keep that right hand anchored somewhere above the surface.

Video 2 - West Virginia Extreme Baptism

This isn’t the laugh-out-loud kind of funny. It’s more of the I-can’t-believe-these-guys-did-this kind of funny. Notice they need two good-sized guys doing the baptisms. I imagine with water at this temperature, it’s the only way to make sure everyone goes all the way under. Brrrr!

Video 3 - Fish Baptism

Well … I guess there’s more than one way to leave a baptismal.

Video 4 - Cannonball

And … Of course, there’s more than one way to enter a baptismal.

For example, in many churches children and parents go their separate ways at the start of church time and only come back together after they’ve had their separate spiritual training. There is very little or no opportunity for parents to take an active role in their children’s spiritual education during church time.

At the same time it is also true that there are many positive aspects to segregated, age-focused spiritual training, so I’m not suggesting that this model of church life needs to change.

And frankly, many parents probably don’t mind this set up. After all parents can feel inadequate when it comes to explaining spiritual truths to anyone.

When Opportunity Knocks …

But I would like to point out that some types of spiritual training present an opportunity to engage parents and their children in a common learning activity.

And I think baptism preparation can easily be made into one of those integrated teaching times, one where parents can be pretty easily included in their children’s preparation for baptism. This is true because of the special importance of baptism in a believer’s life. This special importance can provide motivation for parents to be willing to set aside time to be involved. It also can motivate them to move out of their comfort zone and take a more active role in teaching than they might normally take.

In this article I’m going to focus the discussion around issues of most interest to church staff and volunteers. However, I hope that you parents who have read up to this point will “listen in” to see why your involvement is a valuable contribution to your child’s baptism preparation.

Parental Involvement Has Its Challenges

As a children’s education worker, you are probably aware that parental involvement in your classroom can sometimes create some tough situations. Some children will be less attentive and more distracting to others when their parents are in the room. Some parents may interject comments into the discussion that confuse the point you are trying to make.

And having parents present can create a good deal of stress for you due to the “fish bowl” effect. This is the feeling you get that everything you’re doing in the classroom is being examined under a microscope.

Finally, some parents may not desire to be involved. Worse, they may attend the classes but go away feeling their presence was a waste of their time.

6 Reasons for Parental Involvement

Yet, despite these difficulties, here are 6 reasons why I think it’s worth the extra stress and effort to encourage parents to take an active role in your baptism preparation class.

Baptism presents a unique opportunity to help families bond more strongly as they participate together in a landmark celebration in the life of a believer. Obviously the act of accepting Christ and His free gift of eternal life is the most significant decision any person can ever make (if you are not familiar with this concept of obtaining eternal life, please visit this link for more information). So bringing the members of a family together to explore the deep meaning of baptism and how it celebrates this important decision will help strengthen that family through a memorable classroom experience that is shared.

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Having parents be present during your class helps underscore, in the minds of your children, the significance of the topic. This in turn can help create a greater sense of appreciation for the great gift God has freely given to us.

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Parents will better be able to see for themselves if their child happens not to be ready for baptism. Your job will then be easier if it becomes necessary to suggest to parents that their child would be better off waiting to be baptized.

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Unsaved parents who participate may get saved as a result of hearing the material you present to their children. Wouldn’t that be a joy?

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Parents who are saved may experience a reawakening of some of their earlier joy over their salvation. This would be a powerful inducement to worship God for an experience that they may have grown to take for granted.

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Parents from the different families who participate may experience a greater sense of community as they participate in the shared experience of preparing their children for baptism.

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Families have ample opportunity to go their separate ways both inside and outside of church. Baptism presents a unique opportunity for you to help encourage a greater sense of bonding for families. Despite any challenges you face for including parents, I would urge you to seriously consider taking advantage of the many pluses to including parents. Your efforts in this regard will broaden the impact of your ministry to children.

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This concludes our Child Baptism Preparation Mini Newsletter series. Whether you are a parent, a church volunteer, or a church staff member, I hope you’ve found the information engaging and useful.

He was a puppeteer who regularly used puppets in his ministry to children. While looking for materials to teach baptism, he came across my booklet, and he realized the story it contained could easily be adapted to a puppet presentation.

Some of his enthusiasm spilled over to me as I realized that Joey’s Baptism had inspired someone to take a creative and fun approach to baptism preparation.

Now … realistically … spicing up baptism preparation in such dramatic fashion (pun intended) is a big undertaking — and not practical for everyone.

But if you have a creative itch just urging you to take on an out-of-the-ordinary approach to baptism preparation, here are some ideas that will help you scratch that itch of creativity:

Do a Dramatic Reading
Choose three children to read Joey’s Baptism out loud. Have one child act as a narrator, another as Grandpa, and a third as Joey. They can either stand at the front of the classroom to read, or they can read by standing next to their seats. If you have enough children in class, you can switch up the reading assignments at chapter breaks.

By the way, if this method is dragging along because your readers are not as strong as they might be, you can take the part as narrator to help keep things moving.

As a variation on this approach, you could have one person act as narrator and then divide the remaining children into two groups. The first group can read Grandpa’s part in unison and the second can read Joey’s part.

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Have Adults Act Out the Story
If you’ve got a couple of outgoing adult volunteers, they could learn and act out the parts of Grandpa and Joey. A third adult can act as narrator to fill in any parts that aren’t clear from the acting alone.

And if you’ve got some volunteers who are really ambitious, you could film the action and create a fun presentation of part or all of the booklet narrative to watch on TV. The additional advantage to filming the presentation is that you have a resource that you can reuse with future preparation classes.

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Finger Puppets
One Christian education director who purchased Joey’s Baptism told me that she was planning to have the children in her class use finger puppets to act out a baptism.

Perhaps there are other parts of the story where you can have children do role playing, maybe with finger puppets or maybe by acting with a partner. Another idea would be to have your class act out a portion of a church service that includes a few people pretending to get baptized — sort of a practice run. Anything that gets your children physically involved in the story or in the concepts being taught will more strongly reinforce the concepts they are learning.

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A Puppet Show
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the method that was described at the start of this article. The man who told me about his idea for the puppet show made one easy but significant change when he did his show.

He changed the character of Grandpa into Grandma. This change made it easier to create distinct voices for the characters. And this, in turn, made it easier for the children to keep track of who was saying what.

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Mix Several Approaches
Instead of just using a single one of the ideas above, choose two or more and apply each to one or two chapters.

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Getting Carried Away
I do want to add a bit of caution here. When you come across creative ideas for spicing up your teaching, there are two common but not very helpful reactions.

One is a feeling of guilt. The guilt comes from a conflict between what you think would be good and what you know you can’t do. On the one hand you see the tremendous possibilities that a more elaborate presentation holds for enhancing your children’s learning process. On the other hand you can be painfully aware that you don’t have the time or energy to create such an elaborate presentation.

The other feeling is one of unbridled excitement. You may feel like a child in a candy shop with so many possibilities, you’re not sure when to stop. It’s easy to get caught up in a flush of exhilaration and take on much more than you can reasonably do. If you take on too much, you run the risk of either making things too hard on yourself. Or you may end up with a presentation that has lots of rough edges, because the number of things you included prevented you from doing any of them well.

The antidote for both of these reactions is to take on only as much as you can comfortably get done AND to decide not to feel guilty about how much you do. Remember that while our role in baptism preparation is certainly important, the ultimate responsibility for your children to learn about baptism lies with God through the Holy Spirit; we are only his helpers in this regard.

And as His helpers we do best when we do a quality job within the limits we face rather than a poorly prepared job that overwhelms us. God specializes in filling in the gaps when we “do our best but don’t stress.” As Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 12:9,

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Hopefully this article has given you some ideas to satisfy that creative itch you may be feeling. Any little bits of spice you add to your baptism preparation will help your class to absorb your teachings more deeply and retain the material easier. While you’ll want to be careful not to overcommit, don’t be afraid to try some things that are a little out of the ordinary, some things that do more than go strictly by the book.

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Coming Up: In our next mini newsletter article we will cover
Child Baptism - 6 Irresistible Reasons To Include Parents in Preparation Classes.

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“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.”

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This quote by Professor of Computing Science Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut (alternately also attributed to Baseball Great Yogi Berra) elegantly sums up the clash between the way things ought to be and the way things really end up being.

And there may be nothing more frustrating than to have someone insist that you do things one way — a way that in theory sounds good — when you know that in practice that particular way will never work.

In an earlier article I mentioned how important I thought it was to allow plenty of time for preparing young children for their baptism. I believe that at least three or four separate class sessions should be used to adequately teach children about the significance of their baptism.

And my baptism preparation booklet for children, Joey’s Baptism, was written to be used during four separate class sessions.

However, I’m also a realist. And I understand that the reality of your situation may not give you the opportunity to follow my suggested approach.

To make Joey’s Baptism as useful as possible for as many situations as possible, I’ve come up with a list of modifications to reduce the amount of time needed to go through the booklet. These changes allow your child’s baptism preparation to be done in only one or two class sessions.

I’ve made these changes in such a way that the most essential elements of baptism preparation are still present in the lessons.

The changes are as follows:

Changes to Chapter 1

1. Delete the Family Activity (p. 1).
2. Keep only the first four paragraphs of the Story (pp. 1 - 2).
3. Delete Question 1 (p. 3).
4. Delete both versions of Activity 1 (pp. 4 - 5).

Changes to Chapter 2

1. Delete the Family Activity (p. 6).
2. Replace the first paragraph of the Story (p. 6) with the following: “A couple hours later Joey sat on the couch in his grandpa’s living room.”
3. Delete the last 2 paragraphs of the Story (p. 8).
4. Use all Questions (p. 9).
5. Use both versions of Activity 2 (pp. 10 - 11).

Changes to Chapter 3
Delete everything in this chapter.

Changes to Chapter 4
Use everything in this chapter.

Changes to Chapter 5
Use everything in this chapter.

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These changes are fairly easy to make, and they still leave a fun and engaging baptism preparation presentation.

So if your situation only allows you to give a short preparation for baptism, don’t sweat it. Just do your best, within the limits you face, to create a meaningful and rich experience for children preparing for baptism. Then trust God to use you effectively to create a good work in those children.

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Coming Up: In our next mini newsletter article we will cover
Safety First! Baptizing Children with Special Needs.

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That was me telling my wife that I couldn’t find the item she had asked me to get. This particular time it could have been the sugar on the storage shelf downstairs.

Or the steak in the freezer.

As I’d mount the top stair, she’d look at me with incredulous disbelief (and probably in her imagination roll her eyes) and say, “I’ll go look.”

And I’d smile — knowing that she’d come back slightly red-faced … empty handed … explaining why she had thought the item she wanted would have been where she said.

I usually only had to wait a couple minutes.

“What’s this?” she’d ask, holding up the item I somehow missed. “It was right up front.”

I’d sheepishly answer, “Well if you’re going to hide it right up front, how do you expect me to find it?”

Blind Spots

Missing the obvious. Also known as blind spots.

It’s a malady we parents sometimes suffer from when it comes to our kids.

And that’s why one of my biggest concerns while raising my kids has been:

Will I recognize if my kids are professing a faith in Christ that looks good on the outside but lacks the fundamental heart change on the inside that leads to eternal life?

Whether or not our children have embraced a genuine conversion determines their readiness for baptism. The difficulty here is that sometimes our children profess a belief or attitude simply because they know we want them to. Left to their own devices, they might adopt something different.

In a case like this, where they are merely telling us what we want to hear, their profession is built on sand. It is unlikely to hold up when the storms of maturing intellect challenge their beliefs.

Now — let me pause a moment. It is not my purpose to raise undue alarm, to cast unnecessary doubt in your mind about your child’s belief in Christ.

But I would like to offer some ways that you can take a fresh look at your child’s profession of faith — to give you confidence that your child’s faith is her or his own. And that your child is ready for that next step of baptism.

The most obvious first step is to see if your child can explain, in her or his own words, what salvation is all about. The key components I’ve looked for in my children’s explanations are an understanding that

1. We all sin,

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2. We all need a savior,

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3. Christ came to die for us and take away our sin,

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4. We all must trust Christ to take away our sin,

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5. They themselves have made a decision to accept Christ’s gift of forgiveness by believing in him and his sacrifice on our behalf.

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(NOTE: If this explanation of having your sins forgiven is unfamiliar, here’s an in-depth explanation of how you can have your sins forgiven by God.)

Challenge Points

Beyond this step I think it’s helpful to try to go a little deeper in my assessment by gently challenging their understanding. I’ve done this very thing with my kids, not necessarily all at once, but over time by bringing up common misunderstandings of how a person gets into heaven.

I call this a “challenge point.”

Then I see how they respond to the misunderstanding. For example, I might say something like, “So do you think someone can get into heaven if they’re really, really good?” If they hesitate or answer yes, I take this as an opportunity to remind them of the Biblical view of salvation.

If a challenge point shows a misunderstanding, I don’t automatically assume their faith has not been genuine. I instead just take note of it as one indication of where they might be spiritually.

And I watch for a trend over time.

If their misunderstanding of some parts of salvation is in narrow, isolated areas, I still give them the benefit of the doubt that their faith in Christ is sincere and genuine and just in need of some clarification.

However, if their misunderstanding would turn out to be broad in scope, I would be open to the likelihood that they have not made a personal, heartfelt, properly understood decision for Christ.

What If Your Child Seems to Misunderstand Salvation?

If your child seems to show signs of not having yet made a personal decision for Christ, don’t be alarmed. It may simply mean that your child needs more time to mature.

At this point I would pray … and trust God to bring your child to a personal faith in Christ. I would also consistently and patiently continue to train your child in Biblical matters, making sure that the different parts of salvation are occasionally discussed. Don’t press hard here, but just keep the conversations matter-of-fact.

This technique of challenge points is the method I used in Joey’s Baptism to help ensure a child preparing for baptism has a Biblical view of salvation. In Chapter 4, Joey, the main character, says, “Why doesn’t everyone get baptized? That way everyone could be forgiven of their sins.”

It’s a question that young children might wonder themselves.

Joey’s grandpa responds by giving a Biblical view of salvation.

For children who see the error with Joey’s view, Grandpa’s explanation strengthens their own properly understood view of baptism.

For children who have an understanding similar to the view conveyed in Joey’s question, Grandpa’s explanation gently corrects their misunderstanding as it re-enforces the Biblical view.

This challenge point in Joey’s Baptism creates an important final check to confirm that a child really is ready for baptism.

It’s inevitable that we will have blind spots around some areas of our children’s lives. This comes from the natural bias we as parents feel toward our kids; how can we possibly avoid all bias when it comes to the little people we love so dearly. But adjusting our focus and engaging in some simple discussion with our children can eliminate one important blind spot. Before you have your child baptized, take a final check of your child’s spiritual readiness by reviewing her or his understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ. This final check will serve your child well.

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Coming Up: In our next mini newsletter article we will cover
Baptism - Is There Really Any Point?.

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Over the course of a two or three different conversations, her mother gave me increasingly more details about the girl’s sudden interest. Her reason for wanting to be baptized was at first a little unclear. But eventually her mother figured out what the little girl found most interesting about baptism.

It was the baptismal. She was really excited about the possibility of getting into “the big tub” at the front of the church. Once her mother realized what was exciting the little girl, her mother decided that the little girl’s baptism ceremony should wait.

What’s the Earliest Age?

Of course, here’s the million dollar question: What is the earliest age that a child can be baptized?

First off, I think it’s fairly straightforward to show from the Bible that children can take part in meaningful spiritual activities. In Matthew 19:14, when some of Jesus’ followers tried to keep children away from Jesus, He said:

Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

Additionally, in Luke 18:17 Jesus proclaimed:

I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

Wow. Faith that is acceptable to God is not hard to possess. It does not take deep understanding or intellectual prowess.

Rather it is a faith so simple that Jesus held up children as the best example of proper faith.

If children provide an example for proper faith, it’s clear that they can be capable of the kind of faith necessary to obtain salvation. And if a child can obtain salvation, then she or he can certainly be baptized.

What a Child Must Be Able to Understand

So then, what must a child understand to become saved?

I believe they must understand and accept 4 simple ideas:

1. He or she is a sinner (Romans 3:23).
2. Sin leads to death (Romans 6:23).
3. Jesus died on a cross and rose again to take away our sins (Romans 10:9).
4. Jesus gives eternal life to those who receive Him (John 1:12).

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(If these ideas about salvation are new to you, I’ve prepared a more detailed look at what the Bible teaches is the first step to true spirituality).

A child is ready for baptism if he or she has embraced the four ideas above personally. This in turn requires a child to be mature enough cognitively to understand what these ideas mean and to be mature enough emotionally to make a genuine decision to receive Christ.

If a child cannot grasp these four ideas, the child is not mature enough to have obtained salvation personally and is not yet ready for baptism.

Age Guidelines

Here are guidelines (but nothing more than guidelines) that I think can guide us in determining if a child is old enough to be able to comprehend the necessary aspects of salvation:

• Most four-year-olds are probably too young to be able to have a genuine conversion. Probably all four-year-olds will be perfectly capable of understanding that they sometimes do wrong things. However, very few will be able to understand in a meaningful way the seriousness of their sin; I doubt they can feel much real guilt and remorse. Without guilt and remorse, it will be impossible to understand our vital need for a Savior.
• Some five- and six-year-olds are mature enough.
• Most eight-, nine-, or ten-year-olds are mature enough, but a few may not be.
• Even if a child is able to comprehend salvation, a child may be too young to make a genuinely committed decision for Christ.

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We can see that the faith of a child can be adequate for salvation at quite a young age. However don’t be afraid to delay baptism for a child who may need just a little more time to mature. Each child will be different, and you’ll need to assess your child’s readiness individually. The ultimate test will be to see when your child has committed to a heartfelt and properly understood reliance on Christ to forgive her or his sins.

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Coming Up: In our next mini newsletter article we will cover
How Can I Be Sure My Child Is Saved?.

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You’ve probably viewed their presence as a unique opportunity to minister God’s love to someone less fortunate than a typical child.

Yet if we’re completely open, you may have also felt feelings of fear and inadequacy as you made your best attempts to meet the special needs of the child.

Believe me, I know the feeling. You see, my daughter has cerebral palsy. The way her medical condition affects her body is in her ability to walk and to speak clearly. And while I feel completely comfortable interacting with her, many are the times that I feel inadequate to help her live the most normal life that she can.

A Potential Safety Problem

For some children with special needs, baptism can present a unique risk. Physical or cognitive restrictions of a child can present a dangerous situation during the physical act of baptism. A child with special needs may be incapable of holding her or his breath for a sufficiently long period of time to be safely immersed under water, even briefly.

What can you as a children’s ministry teacher or leader do to ensure that the baptism of a child with special needs does not endanger a child’s health or life?

Before we get to the main topic, I’d like to make clear my understanding of what I believe the Bible teaches about baptism.

A Review of the Method of Baptism

I believe the Biblical method of baptism is by immersion. Without getting into a long discussion, I believe this for the following reasons:

The Greek word for baptism is “baptizo,” which in many contexts means to immerse, dip, plunge or bury in water.

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The baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3:13-16 describes Jesus coming up out of the water. Although Jesus’ baptism was not a “Christian” baptism (since Jesus had no need to acknowledge and celebrate the salvation of His soul), this scene gives evidence that the common understanding of baptism at the time was by immersion.

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Paul’s use of imagery in Romans 6:3-5 likens baptism to burial, which only makes sense if baptism is done by immersion.

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I therefore believe that under normal circumstances, God expects believers to be baptized by immersion, both as a celebration of their salvation and as an act of obedience to God.

Are Exceptions Really Possible — Biblically?
Yet I believe exceptions can be made for exceptional circumstances. I base this belief on some examples in the Bible where special accommodations were made to handle circumstances that were out of the ordinary.

For example Luke 14:1-5 says:

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?’ But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away. Then he asked them, ‘If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?’

Here Jesus justifies healing a person in need on the Sabbath by appealing to an exceptional circumstance. Jesus relies on the common understanding that rescuing a child or an ox from a well would constitute work. He also knows that such work for an exceptional situation like this would clearly be considered an acceptable form of work on the Sabbath by His audience. In the process He also indicates His approval of this type of exception.

An even more shocking example - one that I personally find very surprising - appears in Matthew 12. Verses 1-4 say:

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, ‘Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.’ He answered, ‘Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.’

In this passage Jesus speaks approvingly of the actions of King David in eating bread reserved for priests.

Given the strict requirement for ceremonial worship of God prescribed in Old Testament Law, I would expect King David’s act of eating the consecrated bread to be an extremely grave action. Yet Jesus implies that the circumstances of King David’s hunger justified his actions.

These two examples provide more than enough justification to modify baptism in whatever ways are necessary to ensure a safe ceremony.

A Powerful Opportunity to Serve

When it comes to baptism you have a tremendous opportunity to serve, in a powerful way, a child with special needs and his or her parents. It is likely that the parents will have some misgivings about how to have their child participate in the rite of baptism. And they may approach you expecting you to push them to have their child baptized through full immersion.

Based on the example of David and of our Lord, you can offer them the opportunity to have their child baptized in a way that is acceptable to God and safe for their child. Your willingness to accommodate their child’s special needs will help make their child’s baptism a truly meaningful ceremony that helps them to worship God fully for His great mercy.

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Coming Up: In our next mini newsletter article we will cover
5 Creative Ideas to Spice Up Joey’s Baptism.

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She arrives - uninvited - to a stranger’s house and proceeds to enter without permission. Finding a savory spread of food from which to satisfy her cravings and posh accommodations in which to rest, she fulfills her role as self-appointed vacation maven to the world by finding something wrong with 2 out of every 3 things she tries.

Hers was not the kind of personality that encourages contentment in the circumstances within which you find yourself (or in her case, in which she inserted herself).

And I suppose that people who actually had to live with Goldilocks on a day-to-day basis quickly grew tired of hearing the Goldilocks Standard Response: “Not too little and not too much.”

When it comes to personality traits, using the the Goldilocks Standard Response is probably not the best way to keep friends.

However, when it comes to answering the question, “How much time should I devote to baptism preparation?” the Goldilocks Standard Response is just right: Not too little and not too much.

Striking the Proper Balance

Or - let me state that in a slightly more useful form: Preparing a child for baptism should create the greatest possible appreciation for and understanding of God’s gift of salvation. Once the preparation reaches this point it should stop.

If baptism preparation continues beyond this point, you run the risk of layering fluff over the straightforward simplicity of salvation. This in turn may hide the magnificence and depth of God’s unending love.

On the other hand if baptism preparation does not reach this point, baptism may be little more to a child than a religious ritual devoid of any significant meaning.

In either case - spending too little time or too much time - the true significance of believer’s baptism may be lost.

So let’s bring this discussion down to specifics. How much time, in terms of separate class sessions, should be devoted to children’s baptism preparation?

Getting Down to Specifics

I don’t believe there is a precise answer to this question. However, here are some guidelines that I think make sense:

A single class session will usually be inadequate. If a child is exposed to teaching on a topic only one time, she or he usually does not absorb much of the information. Information is much better absorbed when it’s presented more than once to a child

So I think two class sessions should be considered the absolute minimum. However, I still think this is not an ideal situation. The spiritual meaning of the baptism ceremony is pretty deep and includes several distinct ideas. Two sessions means that many children, especially less mature ones, will find it hard to absorb some of the more subtle aspects of baptism.

Three or four sessions strike me as a good number. This number of sessions provides time for the material in each lesson to sink in. This number also provides more time and thereby a better opportunity for you to assess the readiness of each child for baptism.

What If I Have Strict Limits?

Of course for most church ministries, time is at a premium. Usually teachers, students, and student’s families have many activities they juggle each week. So for your situation, setting aside 3 or 4 class sessions may just not be practical.

If that’s the case with you, don’t sweat it. As humans we all have to work within the limits of our circumstances. If you can only spend 1 or 2 class sessions for baptism preparation, then pour your best effort into making those sessions as effective as you can. Cut out less essential material in favor of the most essential parts of baptism and only present those parts.

I’ve written my baptism preparation program, Joey’s Baptism, to use 4 sessions. If you are interested in using Joey’s Baptism, but your circumstances prevent you from using 3 or 4 class sessions for baptism preparation, the next article will help you. It contains suggested ways to modify Joey’s Baptism to use only one or two sessions.

So do your best to spend an amount of time for baptism preparation that’s not too little and not too much. On the other hand, don’t stress it if your circumstances allow you less time for baptism preparation than you think you need.

As I once heard someone say (or maybe I read it), prepare a lesson as if everything depended on you. Then deliver it as if everything depended on God.

The bottom line is to trust Him for the results. Simply stated - prepare, pray, and trust.

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Coming Up: In our next mini newsletter article we will cover
The Reality of Limited Time - A Shortened Version of Joey’s Baptism.

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Jason can explain why Jesus died on a cross. And he can even describe what sin is. But Bob has noticed that Jason seems to miss the idea that he himself is a sinner in need of a Savior. Jason also seems to be confused about if he’s trusted Jesus to take away his sins. Sometimes Jason says he has, but other times Jason seems to treat it as “just all in fun.”

When Jason’s parents first signed up for baptism preparation, they were excited about their little boy getting baptized.

But Bob thinks Jason isn’t ready. How do you think Bob should handle this situation?

How would you handle this situation?

A Difficult Position to Be In

A children’s ministry teacher facing this circumstance is in a somewhat difficult situation. Obviously, if a child is not ready to be baptized, because she or he has not yet made a personal commitment to Christ, it is not in the child’s interest to baptize him or her.

Baptizing a child who has not yet accepted Christ’s gift of salvation turns the celebration of baptism into an empty ritual. And I firmly believe that empty rituals in a child’s life undermine sincere spirituality.

A child who takes part in an empty ritual probably will do so out of a sense of compulsion. And feeling compelled to participate in an activity that is intended to be a willing act of obedience to God can build resentment in a child. It can also encourage a child to live a life of fake spirituality.

Of course, approaching a child’s parents to suggest that their child should wait to be baptized isn’t necessarily easy. If they are convinced that their child is ready, your suggestions to the contrary may meet with some bit of resistance.

In a situation like this it’s important to keep things as peaceful as possible.

Tread Carefully

So your first step is to pray. Ask God to confirm in your heart that your perception of the child not being ready is accurate. Seek Him earnestly and be open to the possibility that you might be seeing things incorrectly. Also, pray for wisdom for you, the child’s parents, and other leaders in the church who might end up being affected.

Mention your concerns about the child’s readiness to the children’s ministry coordinator or your church pastor. If you are the pastor, perhaps consult with another leader in the church, someone who can be trusted to treat the matter confidentially. A second opinion can help confirm or contradict your perception of the situation and hopefully bring greater clarity.

When Talking to the Parents Becomes Necessary

If after doing these things you still believe the child is not ready, here are some further suggestions for when you talk to the child’s parents:

Commit to keeping your focus on what’s best for the child. Keeping this focus can help you follow through with approaching the child’s parents. It can also help you keep calm if emotions start to get a little unsettled.

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Try to present the situation in a matter-of-fact way, as simply nothing more than the child needing a little additional time to mature. Point out that everyone matures in different areas at different speeds. Otherwise, it can be easy for a discussion in this area to wander into side topics that might be unnecessarily hurtful. For example, the suggestion that a child is not yet ready for baptism could be misinterpreted by parents - in the heat of a discussion - as a suggestion of some kind of spiritual inferiority. Keeping the discussion centered on the idea of their child simply needing more time and maturity can help avoid such wanderings.

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Try to have some specific examples of things their child has said that show a lack of enough maturity. Examples like this can help a parent who is reluctant to accept what you are saying to ultimately agree with your assessment. Without specifics, it may be hard for the child’s parents to accept your viewpoint.

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It’s for the reasons I mentioned in suggestion 3 above that I think it’s essential to present a review of salvation as part of baptism preparation. In addition to helping you assess if all the children you are preparing are ready, the review of salvation can give you specific examples that show a child is not ready. In this way the salvation review acts as a tool both for assessment of a child’s readiness and for support if it becomes necessary discuss a child’s lack of readiness.

A valuable part of preparing children for baptism is not only helping them to be ready for this special ceremony. It’s also helping children wait if they’re not yet ready. Hopefully those instances where you have to make a child wait are few and far between. But when it’s necessary, assume this responsibility with gentleness. And do for the child what is best for her or him.

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Coming Up: In our next mini newsletter article we will cover
Doing a Great Job of Preparing Children for Baptism.

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The age mismatch syndrome creates similar complications when trying to teach a classroom of children of different ages.

In many churches baptism preparation will be forced to meet the age mismatch syndrome head-on. Even if your children’s program is large enough to separate Sunday School classes by age, usually the number of children preparing for baptism will be a small portion of all of the children in your Sunday School classes. And the children may vary significantly in age.

The only practical approach in this situation may be to teach all of these children as part of a single class.

Your challenge, then, is to provide a learning environment that appeals to older children while still being accessible to younger participants.

What’s the best way to achieve this environment?

A Walk Down TV Lane

You’ve probably had this experience. You’re walking through the electronics area of a discount department store. The TVs are blaring, all with the latest new children’s movie on DVD.

Without really being aware of what you’re doing, you slow your pace as you pass by the animations on the screen. Something about the unfolding story draws you into the action …

… minutes later the realization suddenly hits you that you’ve been standing an embarrassingly long time, totally engrossed in - of all things - a kids’ story.

The Broad Appeal of a Good Story

It’s amazing how a good story can appeal to such a broad range of ages.

That’s why I think the use of story is an excellent way to prepare children for baptism. The fact that Jesus so often explained spiritual concepts using stories further supports this idea.

And this is the method I chose to use in my baptism curriculum Joey’s Baptism. Joey, the main character in the story, realizes that he would like to get baptized. His grandfather, through a series of situations, gives Joey a thorough explanation of the purpose and importance of baptism.

Since stories naturally hold a special fascination for children, my hope is that as Joey’s story unfolds, children will find themselves drawn into the story in a way that allows them to relate in a meaningful way to the childlike questions Joey poses. As Grandpa answers Joey’s questions, children will likewise have their questions answered.

I also believe the story will allow children of a broad range of ages to be taught together. If at all possible I would recommend using a story as your primary way of teaching your lesson. If the curriculum you choose does not include a story, perhaps you or someone in your church can write one based on the material in your curriculum.

Of course in the real world of real classrooms and real children, a story will still have its limits in how effectively it can keep children engaged in the lessons.

3 Additional Ideas

Therefore, here are three additional ways you can increase the chance that you’ll appeal to every age group:

Use age-appropriate worksheets as supplements to reinforce the material taught in class. While a story naturally appeals to multiple ages, worksheets have a much narrower focus. So you’ll need to make sure you have worksheets available for multiple age levels.

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Allow the older children to help with some of the classroom administrative chores. They might be able to handout worksheets and pencils. They can also be engaged to help the younger children get their worksheets filled out properly. Anything that helps them feel like they are filling a role that acknowledges their higher level of maturity will help them stay more fully engaged in all parts of the class.

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Let the older children participate in presenting part of the lesson. They could read parts of the story or lessons. Or they might even give a short testimonial about how they came to know Christ. A word of caution: Before you ask a child to present her or his testimony, you might want to first ask them questions that would reveal the content of what their testimony would be. This will help them keep it focused. And it will also give you a good indication if having the child give a testimony might be impractical for one reason or another.

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The need to conduct a baptism class with children of many ages presents you with an important challenge. The better that each child is engaged in the lessons, the more fully each will understand the value of baptism. The use of story and other engaging techniques can help you overcome the age mismatch syndrome.

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Coming Up: In our next mini newsletter article we will cover
‘Your Child Isn’t Ready for Baptism’ - How to Break the News.

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