What About Christenings and Baptism?

At Richmond Park Church people get baptised after they have made their own decision to invite Jesus into their life (ie become a Christian), as a personal and public confirmation of their faith, in accordance to what we believe the Bible teaches on baptism. Soon after Jesus' resurrection, one of the disciples, Peter, addresses a crowd of people in Jerusalem, preaching to them about Jesus being their Saviour. The people understand his explanation and ask him "what shall we do?". Peter replies: "Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins" (Acts 2: 37-38).

To us, baptism by full immersion in water symbolises dying to the "old self" (your life when you were separated from God by sin and not spiritually connected to God) and being re-born as a "new creation" (you now have God's Spirit alive in you and your sins have been forgiven).

Getting baptised and taking communion are two things we are instructed to do in the Bible which are symbolic, but also more than that. God chooses to use our obedience in going through these actions to communicate with us on a profound spiritual level as well. The religious terminology for things like these are "sacraments".

As we believe that baptism is something that should follow making a personal choice to become a Christian, we don't believe in baptising (or christening) babies, as babies can't make that choice for themselves. However, we do believe in dedicating babies to the Lord. A short dedication ceremony usually takes place as part of our Morning Worship. Just like at a christening, the parents promise before God and the church to bring their child up in Christian ways, and the church promises to support them in this.

If you are a Christian, but have never been baptised, you can asked to be baptised now, it's never too late!

If you've got more questions, feel free to email them to us.

What About Weddings?

What About Funerals?