Ivy's Baptism

"Amen!"

I figured I'd update you all on a post I wrote a long time ago about Chuck and I wanting to baptize Ivy as an infant. For some reason infant baptism is a hotly-debated topic in Christian circles. It's a tradition that I was raised with. But I've also studied the different viewpoints and have come to the conclusion that I would like to maintain that tradition. But not at the expense of church unity. I disagree with the idea that "believer's baptism" is the only true baptism, but I'm not going to go to the wall for it. Too many people (ehem, Evangelicals) make a big deal out of little things, and I think that is what causes a lot of schisms in the church.

And all of this commentary is really irrelevant though, because we kind of just decided it wasn't even worth the argument with our church leaders. Maybe at a different place, at a different time, we would have had the emotional energy to confront what we think is a bit of narrow thinking. But Chuck and I have had a very challenging year, and we just didn't have it in us to go up against hundreds of years of church history.

So we baptized Ivy ourselves in the bathtub. I wish our church family could have been there to witness. I truly think that we all missed out in a way. But the important thing is that it's done. Ivy is baptized into the Church. God was there, her parents were there, and so was the Communion of Saints who came before us. 

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
-Romans 6:4-5