Intern Chronicles #002

The internship at UBC is going pretty well, unfortunately, it is not all fun and games. I applied to get my internship endorsed through the Baptist denominational organization, but I was declined the endorsement because the issue of baptism. I got a call from someone from the organization during my job, and he explained to me that they could not endorse me because I have not received a believer baptism.

Now some may automatically deem it to be unjust or denominationalism, but it must be understood that in order to gain endorsement, I must be part of a Baptist church, and in order to be a member, one must receive believer baptism. So yes it is a denominational rule coming into play, but I can respect their notion behind so.

To give the backdrop of this issue, I grew up in a United Methodist church, in which I was baptized as an infant, and the only one of my parents' 3 kids to have been baptized as a baby (I feel there is significance in that seen in my life). The Baptist denomination and others do not uphold infant baptism to be "legit" or biblical; others would beg to differ. Recently, my friend showed me a book that supports infant baptism from a Covenantal Presbyterian perspective. There support came down to 2 elements of support: the accounts of whole families being baptized in the book of Acts (whole households implying children or infants) and Israelite circumcision being paralleled to infant baptism. Can't say I agree 100% or that they are heretics, but it's worth considering.


Now it starts the Bible battle of baptism. Alliterations aside, how can we process this debate? I spent the first 20 years of my life oblivious to this battle, so please excuse not know. Unfortunately, that excuse does not change the reality of facing this hurdle. My first inclination of it when I was 20 was: "Should the emphasis be on the water baptism or the baptism of the Holy Spirit?" I believe that question is valid, but not many would consider it in this discussion.
Is it necessary for someone having been baptized as a child, lived a life of Christian identity, gone through confirmation class (UMC supplementation of believer's coming to faith, despite being baptized as an infant), and have been living an intentional Christian life and ministry prep for 5 years to be baptized?

That is my struggle. I've asked friends, I've asked others, but what I have come down to is that I since I did not exactly want the endorsement because of the money involved, I would not go through a 2nd baptism, but if I am to join UBC, I would have to get baptized again. This baptism would not represent me becoming a Christian or anything like that, but it would represent coming before a congregation to make a public confession of faith and joining their community. This will be a decision that will possibly influence the future of my life and ministry.

I blame myself. When I decided to seemingly leave the UMC by not going to a Methodist seminary, I should've known that if go to any other denomination or any kind of church, I will have to submit to their authority. That means if I go Baptist, I must get baptized, and if I go Mehtodist, I must leave Moody.

Not much of a Catch 22 ...