Baptizing Son If Not Member of Church?

What would be the reason to baptize a child if you don't belong to a church? Just curious. If you do not plan to raise the child in church there is not really a reason to baptize. Furthermore, it's not necessary to baptize a child. When a child is of understanding age, they then can take the appropriate classes to learn why they are making this decision. The bible does not say that children need to be baptized becuase while they are innocent they will go to heaven. You can however, have a dedication ceremony where you dedicate the child to God and promise to raise him in the church and teach him the way.

Dear J.,

It sounds like you want an insurance policy for your son, but what about you and your husband? In our non-denominational Christian faith, babies and small children are “dedicated” in a short ceremony once a month in front of the entire congregation and a certificate of dedication is given to each family. It is a joint ceremony for all families wishing to have a child dedicated and generally I think you do have to be a member of the church (but I’m not sure)…it could be that the grandparents, godparents or relative belonging to a specific church could request a dedication of a child. Check with your cousin. He may even have a church recommendation that you and your husband would enjoy attending or joining as a family. Your son will learn by the examples you and his father set.

When a child is at an age where they can understand what being baptized means and they are making a free and conscious choice, then they go through the ceremony of full emersion baptism in the presence of the congregation and their families. It’s a very moving site. Many churches have different ways other then full emersion….again, personal choice.

Congratulations on your new son, may God bless and keep you all throughout your lives. Blessings

Hi J.,
Why don't you just have your cousin baptise your child. It doesn't have to be at a church. You could do it in a pool, lake or river.

Good luck on finding a home church!

C.

J.,

I agree with Toni, in that you should make sure you know that you have a personal relationship with Christ before you can teach your child. We also have a Baby Dedication service at our church when the parents promise to raise the children in 'the nurture and admonition of the Lord'. Its only possible to do this if you know from the Bible how to raise your child that way. We offer discipleship classes for this.

If you live in the Morgan Hill area, please come to Shadow Mountain Baptist Church or visit smbc.net for more information. We would love to have you visit. You can also call the pastor if you would like to meet with him about this.

Regardless of whether you visit Shadow Mountain, I pray that you find the straight way in this process. Raising children is difficult enough without God's help!

God Bless.

I think you need to make sure on why you are baptizing your child. It depends on your denomination, whether they do baptisms for child. I was raised Catholic and had 2 of my 4 children baptized. I had them baptized at the church I had grown up in and was married in. I did it out of tradition. It is not a way of securing thier salvation. Now my husband and I are Christians and since have had 2 daughters and one on the way. They have never been baptized, because now I understand what it means. Since your cousin is a pastor, I would strongly advise you to talk to him. Ask him questions and make sure you understand what it is you are doing and for what reasons. But from what I remember, you need to be a parishoner(member) in order to have any ceremony at most churchs. Most churchs will not allow you to bring in someone else to perform ceremonies, some will, but most won't. And yes there are classes that you and the godparents take before the ceremony.

This is really going to depend on your Church or denomination. We're Catholic and baptism is a sacrament so yes, we (parents and godparents) had to do a class before we had our son baptized so that we knew what we were doing/agreeing to, but some churches do more of a "christening" or blessing of the child which probably has fewer preparation requirements.

Like a wedding, baptism ceremonies should be meaningful to the people involved. If you don't belong to a church, do you really want your son baptized INTO that church community? If your cousin is a pastor, maybe he can perform the ceremony. You could do it at his church or do an outdoor ceremony of your own.

Just call your local church and ask them what the process is. then you'll know.

Good luck finding this information.

Hi J.,

For Catholics, we register as a parishoner at the church of choice. I don't know how it's done in other faiths.