HUNTSDALE – It’s never too late for a Christ-follower to be baptized, and seven people from Huntsdale Baptist Church here didn’t even let the church’s lack of a baptistry stop them from taking that step of obedience.
Bobby Kerr, pastor of Huntsdale, came to the church late last year after they’d been without leadership for some time. As he began to preach from God’s word and lead the small church in the tiny community west of Columbia, he soon realized something about many of those in attendance: they’d never been baptized.
First, one woman came to Kerr.
“She cornered me before a service and said she wanted to be baptized,” he said. “I told her, ‘we’ll work on that!’ She said, ‘sooner rather than later,’ because she has cancer, and I said, “we’ll work on that, too!”
So Kerr and Huntsdale worked on that, looking to arrange something in April with the nearest congregation with a baptistry, Midway Heights Baptist Church in Columbia. As those arrangement took shape, Kerr realized there were others there who had made professions of faith long ago but had never followed through in believer’s baptism.
But before anyone could take the plunge, Kerr took the church through “Baptism 101,” walking everyone through the Scriptural basis for baptism, and its role as an act of symbolic obedience to Jesus.
“A lot of them had made prior decisions and had never followed through, or they grew up in churches that didn’t immerse,” he said. “We went through the examples of John the Baptist, Christ submitting that to the glory of God, and the Ethiopian and Philip.”
When he closed by asking if anyone else desired to follow Christ in baptism, six others stood up.
So on the evening of April 28, Huntsdale and Midway Heights came together to witness the baptisms. The original baptism candidate cleared everything with her doctor and secured a waterproof cover for her chemotherapy port.
“She came up out of the water and threw her hand in the air, just like she’d scored a touchdown,” Kerr said. “We had a celebration, and it was just about as exciting as a ball game! The Lord really moved, and it was a sweet time.”
In addition to seeing people in his church grow in faith and obedience, Kerr said the experience was a beautiful picture of churches cooperating.
“We had a need as a small church, and they opened their doors,” he said.
Finally, Kerr said the baptisms renewed his vigor and drive to serve Huntsdale.
“It really encouraged me personally and confirmed that I’m where I’m supposed to be,” he said.