Lead Pastor Reuben Porter from Crossroads Church in Palmerston North shares about the joy of baptising a number of people on Pentecost Sunday:
"Sunday was such a special day for our church family, with 23 people getting baptised and publicly declaring their faith in Jesus."
They had 16 people register to be baptised, seven in the 10am Service and nine in the 6pm Service. People were able to share their testimonies with the church of what God has done in their lives and what led to their decision to be baptised that day.
After they shared their testimonies, family and friends were able to gather around each person to pray for them and encourage them in this step of faith and obedience.
There was also an invitation for people to consider baptism at the start of the service even though they didn’t previously register, those who felt led to this were baptised at the end of the service. The leadership team spoke to these people first to understand their faith journey and whether they understood what it meant to be baptised. As a result, they had seven spontaneous baptisms, four during the 10am Service and three in the 6pm Service.
Joy Quijano, Operations Coordinator at Crossroads Church, comments:
"A few moments that especially stood out throughout both services were two young girls from Girl’s Rally were baptised, and it was so encouraging to see their Girl’s Rally leaders standing with them on stage as they shared their testimonies.
"Two members of our worship team made the spontaneous decision to be baptised that day - one of them had even been serving on the worship team that very morning!
"We initially had one spontaneous baptism during the 6pm service, this meant people started leaving the auditorium but suddenly there was an excited shout of 'there are two more!', and people turned around to head back into the auditorium to support and witness these two other spontaneous baptisms! Glory to God!
"It was also inspiring to see people of all ages being baptised, a reminder that taking this next step of faith doesn’t have an age restriction."
Reuben says that one of the biggest highlights was "seeing the wide range of stories represented, different ages, backgrounds, and journeys, all united in taking this next step of faith". "The atmosphere throughout the day was incredibly faith-filled and celebratory, and it felt like a real reminder that God continues to move powerfully in people’s lives", he concludes.
