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    One more thing to blame the megachurch for…

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    One more thing to blame the megachurch for…

    According to an article in USA Today, the megachurch is also partly responsible for the demise of the outdoor baptism (you know, the whole 'getting baptized in a lake or river' thing. Bad megachurch.

    The article makes this glaring accusation: "Outdoor baptisms are rapidly disappearing in America. Once prevalent in the rivers and deltas of the South, the ritual has been nearly extinguished by indoor pools, mega-churches and modernization, researchers and ministers say."

    I don't know what is worse, the dang indoor pools, the despicable megachurch, or the evil of indoor plumbing. But it seems that they all have it out against outdoor baptisms. Seems to me that the dirty water, mud, and yuckiness of most rivers might have something to do with it. (NOTE: no one from USA Today called and asked my opinion though)

    No one keeps statistics on outdoor baptisms, which are performed predominately by Baptists and Pentecostals. But officials at the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest grouping of Baptist churches in the USA, say of the 342,000 baptisms performed last year by its member churches, the vast majority were done indoors.

    “Most churches, even small ones, have indoor baptisteries,” says Rob Phillips, a spokesman for LifeWay Christian Resources, the SBC’s publishing and research arm. “That’s culturally the way folks do it these days.”

    The tradition of submerging someone in a river to wash away their sins began in Europe, came to America in the 18th century and spread across the South by Baptist ministers, Daniels says. The Christian tradition replicates Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist 2,000 years ago.

    African slaves on plantation churches in the South quickly adopted the tradition, says Shayne Lee, an assistant professor of Sociology and African Diaspora Studies at Tulane University. The slave who walked down to the river for his baptism was publicly embracing Christianity while shedding his African religious beliefs, Lee says.

    “For slaves in particular, it was not only a statement of faith, but a political statement,” he says. “It was a statement to the world: ‘I am now connected to Christianity.’”

    In the 1950s, churches modernized to draw more parishioners and began constructing indoor pools for baptisms, Lee says. Later, as thousand-seat mega-churches began replacing smaller, rural churches, outdoor baptisms further dwindled, he says.

    “We now have a whole generation of churchgoers who grew up in mega-churches, where indoor baptisms are the norm,” Lee says. “Outdoor baptisms just don’t resonate anymore.”

    NOTE:  We now have a whole generation of churchgoers who grew up in mega-churches.  No, not really.  Actually, not at all.

    And… Outdoor baptisms just don’t resonate anymore.  True.  I wonder if the church in acts would have used indoor plumbing if they had it available.  My guess is yes.  Churches of 20 people have baptistries.  They have for years.  The lack of outdoor baptisms has NOTHING to do with large churches.
    Here’s the link to the whole article at USA Today...

    OK… what do you think?  Let the Todd-bashing begin!  smile

    Todd

    Comments

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    1. Dave Travis on Wed, August 05, 2009

      Obviously the reporter didn’t check with New Hope Hawaii, Mars Hill Seattle, Flamingo Road in South Florida, New Spring in South Carolina and the dozens of large churches that do HUGE baptism celebrations outside on a regular basis.

    2. Jim Akins on Wed, August 05, 2009

      interesting, our megachurch has had several outdoor baptisms at the local lake. one of our church plants is conducting an outdoor baptism at the river for their 3rd anniversary. but i have to admit we do have one of them fancy indoor plumbing pools for those cold wintry days. amazing!

    3. jennifer on Wed, August 05, 2009

      Todd, we’ve brought back the outdoor baptism… While some lakes here are frankly too unsanitary to step in, we’ve found a local quarry lake and now host our annual picnic there, and the baptism ceremony is a part of it.  It also gives members a chance to invite their friends who normally wouldn’t set foot in a church, but will come to a picnic.  Great way to share faith….

    4. Jesse Phillips on Wed, August 05, 2009

      this is so silly, who even cares? Let’s focus on learning to love God and love our neighbor, if we ever get that right, then we can worry about indoor or outdoor baptism!!!

    5. John on Wed, August 05, 2009

      There’s no surprise that USA Today didn’t do any real research on the subject, heck, I’m even surprised that they tried to touch on it at all. As a partner of LifeChurch.tv I can tell you that we do both outdoor and indoor baptisms for people that have been reborn through faith in Christ and the result is the same in or outdoors, and that’s lifechange. That’s what USA Today should have written about, but I don’t expect to be seeing that article anytime in the near future.

    6. Angela on Wed, August 05, 2009

      must have been a slow news day for USA Today. pretty stupid, waste of time article.

    7. Jerry on Wed, August 05, 2009

      Just another article trying to manufacture confusion where there is none. Trying to create cliff-hangers where there are no cliffs. The news media thrives on controversy and if they can’t find a lgetimate one, they do all they can to create one.


      I didn’t finish the whole article, but in any of this did they put in any kind of positive remarks that THERE ARE STILL BAPTISMS HAPPENING? That is the important fact. That there are still people being saved and the church is still baptizing. God is still on the throne and He is still at work in the lives of His children.

    8. Linda Stanley on Wed, August 05, 2009

      I say we blame it on the 2 great evils of the day - iPhones & twitter.

    9. Mark Triplett on Wed, August 05, 2009

      I guess they didn’t bother to check us out either, we’ve done almost 200 baptisms since January, most of which were outdoors.

    10. Richard Vissers on Wed, August 05, 2009

      “The tradition of submerging someone in a river to wash away their sins began in Europe”


      Really?  So John the Baptists ministry was in Europe?  http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/smile.gif

    11. Peter Hamm on Wed, August 05, 2009

      A silly and ridiculous article, and yes, Linda, iPhones and twitter are evil, I agree… (that was a hilarious remark. Thanks!)


      Forgot Willow… they do all their baptisms outside, too, don’t they.


      We have an indoor baptistry, but do most of our baptisms outside at our yearly church on the beach event.

    12. John C on Wed, August 05, 2009

      Willow does large outdoor baptisms once a year in June at the end of their “ministry year” so to speak, while they do indoor baptisms now once a month I believe using a baptistry. (they used to only do them twice a year - once during the cold months indoors where they just “sprinkled” and once outdoors in the summer.) But they were massive in scale. Usually 800 on up. As has always been the case however, even if you’re baptized on stage, you can choose to do it again outside in the lake when that comes around.


      What I find interesting - I grew up presbyterian and methodist in traditional churches. Until I went to Willow in my 20s, I never even knew people were baptized in ponds, lakes, etc. and had NEVER heard of an indoor baptistry. That just sounded weird to me! All I knew of baptism was seeing infants being baptized with water touched to their forehead by the minister - nothing more than that, as was I when I was an infant.

    13. Alan Jones on Wed, August 05, 2009

      We would beg to differ.  This is from Sunday night:


      http://www.ajwired.com/ccc-baptism-video/

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