‘Just Do It’ Attitude Spurs Mass Baptism

As a pastor, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve challenged people with an action step that I believe comes from God, even though I know 99 percent of the people are going to forget all about it as soon as they walk out the door.

I’m a slow learner, but after baptizing 739 people in one weekend, I think I’m starting to understand human nature. I know that number sounds like something that would happen in some Jesus-starved, Third World country, but it happened in the Chicago suburbs. Granted, we’re a large church. That represented about 15 percent of the people in attendance, but still, when is the last time you got 15 percent of the people anywhere to do anything?

How did it happen? We didn’t let them get out of the door. Don’t take that wrong; these weren’t forced baptisms. We just took away all of their excuses. We told them to do it now. After all, isn’t that what happened in the New Testament?

“Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?’” (Acts 8:35-36)

I’m not here to debate the merit of water baptism. It’s supposed to be One Lord, One Faith, One baptism—not something to debate, so I won’t. But wherever you land on it theologically, baptism represents something that Jesus did and commanded us to do (Matt. 28). And it represents a milestone, a new beginning in the faith journey of new believers. The first church started with 3,000 of them!

So why don’t we see this type of immediate reaction in the church 2000 years later? Because we don’t encourage it.

This was not a new idea to Parkview Christian Church. As with everything we do, we borrowed experiences from many friends and churches who have boldly gone before.

Whether it’s baptism or whatever, I believe the Nike™ principle will work for you in some area, as you encourage your congregation to action. Just Do It.

We told our congregants to just jump in and get baptized in their clothes. That was a real faith step in planning because it was November in Chicago, but God gave us two 55-degree days, and nobody lost any toes to frostbite.

We organized the process very well. We brought in extra tubs, had plenty of volunteers, rented 1,000 towels, and had plastic bags for their car seats and Ziplocs for their belongings.

And I set the stage by literally jumping into one tub in my clothes at the end of every sermon. There is something to leading by example.

We’ve also learned to do the same thing with ministry to the less fortunate. It’s one thing to tell people to go out during the Christmas season and find someone to help. But it will actually happen if you have preselected children and your people can grab a little ornament with the gift suggestion and sizes already on it.

Should your congregation feed the hungry? Of course! So you can tell them to drop off goods at a food pantry and some of them might; or you can have them bring groceries with them to church next weekend and let the food pantry come and pick them up.

Would you like your people to sponsor children in another country? Don’t tell them to go to a Web site. Get the pictures and the information and put them on a table or a window where they can come and pick a child before they go out the door. We signed up hundreds of sponsorships for Africa that way. Yes, it was work; it took time and energy. But I’m guessing the 600 kids who now have two meals a day and an education (and who wouldn’t have if we just told the people to go to a Web site and do something later) are glad that we did! And so are the people who signed up! They wanted to do it. They are good people.

The old proverb says, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Most of the people who hear a call to action really want to do the right thing. It’s our job to make sure they can—as soon as possible.

(Tim Harlow serves as senior pastor at Parkview Christian Church in Orland Park, Ill.)