Baptismal service

Next sunday afternoon, we will have a baptismal service in the church. It is exciting since the last Baptism was about 5 years ago. I will be leading the service, and Emmanuel Hartiel will be preaching. In order to prepare myself, I was having a look at the 1689 London Baptist Confession on the subject of Baptism. Their first paragraph is interesting. Contrarily to the modern trend that sees Baptism as a sign for the outside world, the confession describes it as a sign for the one baptised. Here is the paragraph in full:

Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party baptised, a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death and resurrection; of his being engrafted into him; of remission of sins; and of giving up into God, through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of life. (1689 London Baptist Confession, 29.1)

The Westminster Confession of faith says the same thing:

Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church; but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in the newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ’s own appointment, to be continued in His Church until the end of the world.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-10-10

  • La boule à zéro, ou presque, j'ai quand même gardé quelques cheveux. #
  • Those who say the Institutes are boring have obviously not read them. #
  • Off to the market soon. #
  • @alandavey I didn't know you played the bass guitar as well. in reply to alandavey #
  • Our latest update is available here: http://tinyurl.com/2e66wxl (pdf document) #
  • When you google Emmanuel Durand, the first search result is for e French Dominican Monk. Weird. #

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The Micah Challenge

Have you heard of the Micah challenge? Until recently, I must say I hadn’t. It is an initiative from the International Evangelical Alliance, and a number of Christian Charities. It is “a global coalition of Christians holding governments to account for their promise to halve extreme poverty by 2015.” (Micah challenge website).

A few members here are quite interested in the SEL (the French equivalent of Tearfund), and they would be aware that this Sunday (10/10/2010), is a special Sunday for those involved in the Micah Challenge. The SEL would like churches to get involved in reminding their local MPs about the government’s commitment at the UN to help towards halving poverty in the world by 2015. For this, the SEL would like all churches involved to hold a special service, and for this they have sent a whole pack of activities to take place during that service. I personally find it a bit over the top, but you do not have to share my opinion.

Here in Guingamp, rather than following this activity pack to the letter, we have decided that the Micah project would be mentioned, together with a reminder of a Christian view of our involvment in social work. It will take place during the service, for about 10 minutes.

For this, my colleague and I have agreed to use an Article by Mark Barnes, published a year ago in the Evangelical Magazine (available online here). It is a helpful article which outlines some of the dangers to avoid in order not to fall into the social gospel pitfall.

We will finish this time by a prayer.

Micah Challenge website here.

The Librarian

The conversation I had with a Librarian this afternoon is typical.

We went to register to the local Library in the center of town. And when the lady saw on the form that I was on minister, she asked if I was going to be working in a church here. I replied positively and explained I was working alongside the pastor of the local Evangelical church. She did not know there was a church here, so I started explaining to her where the church was located. But she almost immediately interrupted me, saying forcefully she was an atheist, and was only interested in religions from a cultural point of view. I wasn’t even trying to witness or anything, just explaining the location.

People here are very uncomfortable with the subject of religion. As soon as it is mentioned, they react in the same way as this lady. It is sad. I am often taken a back by this and I am thinking about the best way to challenge these people.

It reminds me of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman. When she tried to evade his questions, he had an answer and brought the conversation back to where He wanted it to go. And she was saved. Pray for wisdom and discernment in these conversations.