I want to thank Cumming First Baptist Church for the kindness they demonstrated to some of our young people from Lanier United Methodist Church.
In our United Methodist tradition, we hold confirmation class during the season of Lent reminding young people (6th grade and up) of the promises made for them when they were baptized and offering them the opportunity to join the church. Out of this year’s class there were four who had not been baptized, and as we talked about ways to be baptized they wanted to be immersed.
Since this is a little unusual for Methodists, I sought out a Baptist church that would allow us to use their baptismal pool. First Baptist Church went out of their way to help us.
Tom Hayslip, the church administrator, offered us a date when their church was going to baptize in the morning, so the pool would be filled for us that afternoon. The Rev. Lee Weeks “coached” me in what I needed to do.
And the afternoon of the baptism, Richard Tucker, and Rich and Jodie Willits attended to the four youth and one adult who wanted to be baptized.
They helped fit these people into robes and provided T-shirts and shells to our youth, which will now be their remembrances of a joyful day. They sat through the service that we had in the sanctuary, and treated our young people as if they were their own.
I got the feeling, as God’s Baptist children and Methodist children interacted with each other that day, that God was surely smiling.
Some in our church are studying a book written by a Methodist Bishop, “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations." We felt that First Baptist demonstrated to us one of those practices — radical hospitality. I am grateful to Dr. Robert Jolly for helping his church be the ministers of love and care that they were to us that day.
The Rev. Ted Miller, pastor Lanier United Methodist Church
Cumming
In our United Methodist tradition, we hold confirmation class during the season of Lent reminding young people (6th grade and up) of the promises made for them when they were baptized and offering them the opportunity to join the church. Out of this year’s class there were four who had not been baptized, and as we talked about ways to be baptized they wanted to be immersed.
Since this is a little unusual for Methodists, I sought out a Baptist church that would allow us to use their baptismal pool. First Baptist Church went out of their way to help us.
Tom Hayslip, the church administrator, offered us a date when their church was going to baptize in the morning, so the pool would be filled for us that afternoon. The Rev. Lee Weeks “coached” me in what I needed to do.
And the afternoon of the baptism, Richard Tucker, and Rich and Jodie Willits attended to the four youth and one adult who wanted to be baptized.
They helped fit these people into robes and provided T-shirts and shells to our youth, which will now be their remembrances of a joyful day. They sat through the service that we had in the sanctuary, and treated our young people as if they were their own.
I got the feeling, as God’s Baptist children and Methodist children interacted with each other that day, that God was surely smiling.
Some in our church are studying a book written by a Methodist Bishop, “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations." We felt that First Baptist demonstrated to us one of those practices — radical hospitality. I am grateful to Dr. Robert Jolly for helping his church be the ministers of love and care that they were to us that day.
The Rev. Ted Miller, pastor Lanier United Methodist Church
Cumming