Scandal Rocks Shoreline
For those that didn’t attend the 9:15 Shoreline service (May 27th) you missed the uncovering of a Mars Hill scandal. The revelations of a fact so shocking that people were shaking their heads in disbelief. How something like this could go unnoticed for so long was unimaginable. If it hadn’t been for the incredible detective work of Justin Schaeffer the secret would still be a shameful blemish bubbling under the surface.
What was the secret you ask? I, Pastor JD, had never been baptized. How could a Mars Hill pastor not have been baptized? Shocking! To tell you the truth I really hadn’t thought much about it. I was baptized as an infant, which was good enough to become a member a long time ago. My issues on getting baptized at that time was I just didn’t want to get up in front of a lot of people. Ironically, I do that all the time now. Ha-ha, funny one God, you got me there. The times that I had thought about getting baptized I envisioned doing with my kids hoping it would be some cool bonding experience. I have found out that the best experiences with your kids are usually not planned and forcing them usually leads to bad experiences.
When I went through the process of becoming an elder at Mars Hill it never even crossed my mind, and nobody asked. Then out of the blue I get an email from Justin stating, “The church has no record of your baptism.” It was time to come clean and just get baptized. I decided I had to lead my family by example. With Andrea and the kids watching I was baptized by Pastor Tim. I guess there are pastors out there who do not put their faith in Jesus. I hope that it is reassuring that I publicly declared my love, hope, dependency, and faith in Jesus. The summer baptisms at Alki Beach are fast approaching and I’m wondering who will be next…
Pastor JD
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So why wasn’t your baptism as an infant good enough??
Pastor JD – you made me laugh with your post. I’m not a member of Mars Hill as I am kind of, well geographically challenged as I live in Australia. If I was in the US, I would move to Seattle just to be part of Mars Hill.
So good to see you bite the bullet and lead by example. Hope the water wasn’t too cold for you!
I’m geographically challenged too, like Lay Guy also living in Australia (who would live anywhere else!).
Really enjoying getting into some of the Mars Hill music you guys have available for free on your website. It’s fantastic! I can’t believe how they have transformed some great classic old hymns into modern grunge anthems. Good to keep those old songs alive, keeping those inspiring lyrics but giving the songs a cultural face lift by using a modern genre. Well done.
Sorry for my slightly provocative comment above. Where I’m coming from with that comment is that I grew up a Baptist, thinking only believers’ baptism was valid (as you seem to as well), but have recently come to firmly believe in infant baptism. I posted about the reasons for my shift here. So I guess whenever I hear anyone question infant baptism now, my ears prick up!
Anyway, while I have quite strong views on baptism, it wouldn’t be the first time in history that Christians have disagreed on that topic! It’s great to know our unity in the gospel is so much greater than the issues we disagree on.
Here is Mars Hill’s stance on baptism.
http://www.marshillchurch.org/audio/MHC_Baptism.pdf
Although we have clear beliefs on baptism, we leave some of it up to concience since much of how baptism works is a mystery.
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Andy,
I just read your post and thought you might be interested in a debate coming up on this topic that I heard about. There’s a site called “The Narrow Mind” it’s an apologetic internet radio show hosted by Pastor Gene Cook Jr. (www.thenarrowmind.com) out of California.
He’s got a debate coming up on pado-baptism and was talking about it on show #820 and #821 which are free to download.
I think it’ll be very interesting.
Sam
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Thanks Sam. I shall check it out.
And thanks Justin for linking to the Mars Hill position – I had a look at it. Appreciate all the arguments, coming from a Baptist background myself, but I no longer agree with that position. Ultimately for me I think that denying baptism to infants requires adopting a too restrictive view of faith and grace. Anyway I’ve explained my position on my blog linked to above, but obviously still respect the so called “believers only” view of baptism (my problem being with the definition of “believer”).
Anyway, as I said above, it’s great to know that what unites us is so much greater than those things on which we disagree.
Why does baptism need to be fully understood? We’re told to do it, so we do it. It’s a choice to be made by the person who’s being baptized, not something forced upon them as a baby. If we grab an adult and force them under the water in a pool, does that make them baptized? When people are baptized in the bible, they are adults, they’re making a choice, and they’re taking a stand for God, proclaiming their alligence. I’m trying hard not to get frustrated, but MAN, some people WAY over think things. Just look at Jesus’s example. Pure simplicity. He was baptized. So we should be to. Yes, there’s other examples in the bible that back up the fact that we should choose to be baptized, but, man, Christ did it! End of discussion!
And JD, you shouldn’t make humorous comments about people being upset with you not being baptized. This is a serious thing to some people, as well it should be, and you seem to make light of it in the beginning of your blog. Besides, you’re a pastor… what bible are you reading, man!?! You hadn’t given much thought to being baptized… you must have skipped over that part in your studies.