Baptism

If you are interested in having your child baptised/Christened, we’d love to help you

There are a few steps to follow and some big things to believe about God. We want to help you work out if baptism is something that’s right for you and your child. We hope what follows will explain:

  • what baptism is actually all about
  • what it means about your own personal understanding and belief in God
  • what it means about your own personal commitment to God and his church

If you are interested there are a few steps to follow, which are:

  1. Get in touch
  2. Contact Joe the vicar. He’ll come round to yours and say ‘Hi’ and give you all a chance to get to know one another a bit better
  3. Think about it. Joe will invite you to attend a “Think about It “session. This is a short informal session where we look in detail at the 2 different services we offer at St John’s – a Thanksgiving service (for those who simply want to thank God for the gift of a child) or a Baptism service (for those who want to express their personal commitment to God and his church). You’ll probably find there are a couple of other couples invited to the same session
  4. Come to church. If you are serious about baptism then you need to be serious about coming to church. So we ask you to check us out over a period of a few weeks to see what we’re like and what the Christian faith is really like. If you do decide to go for baptism then you will be promising before God and publicly to be a regular and committed member of God’s family at St John’s. So come and have a good look first! You might find we’re not your cup of tea, or you might be pleasantly surprised
  5. Have a closer look. For those who choose baptism, one of the church’s roles is to help parents (and godparents if possible) prepare and understand properly the great promises and statements of faith and commitment they’ll make in a baptism. In order to allow this we require parents (and godparents if possible) to have attended one of our Start! courses. (These are short, 6 week courses, designed to help people get to grips with Jesus and the Christian faith). When these have been completed we can then start talking dates for baptism!
  6. Decide! After all that – decide! What do you want to do? What service would be the best reflection of your own faith and commitment to Jesus and to His church? Simply a Thanksgiving or to go for baptism

It’s really about making the right choice – so as a result of all this you’ll choose one of the 4 following options:

  1. To forget it! – either you’ll realise its not right for you, or we’re not right for you
  2. To limit it! – you’ll decide that a Thanksgiving is all you want or best expresses your personal faith
  3. To delay it – it maybe that Jesus intrigues you and you want to spend a bit more time checking him out and thinking deeply about faith and commitment to him
  4. To Go for it!

Baptism FAQs

Do I need to believe in God to bring my child for baptism?

YES – in the baptism service the parents and Godparents publicly declare before God their belief and faith in Him. They publicly express commitment to Him as God who is their Creator, their Lord (or ‘boss’), their Saviour and their helper. These are not vague wishy-washy beliefs but very specific beliefs

Do I need to come to church for the rest of my life?

No but yes! People ask the wrong questions. A true commitment to coming to church is born of a love for God, a love for spending good time with him and his people. Footy fans have no problems about getting along to support their teams in all sorts of weather. Why should it be any different for God?! The wrong question to ask is ‘Do I have to come’? The right question is ‘Do I want to come?’

Do I need to live locally to get my child baptised at St John’s?

To bring a child for baptism you either need to live within the parish boundaries of St John’s Baxenden, or if you don’t, then you need to be on St John’s electoral roll. If you live outside the parish boundaries you can join our electoral roll after you have regularly attended services for 6 months

If I live in St John’s parish can I get my child baptised at a different church?

Yes – but you can only get your child baptised at another Anglican church with the permission of the current vicar of St John’s (ie me!). I’ll gladly give that if you convince me you’ve thought long and hard about baptism and either we or the church you are going to will give you adequate preparation