Baptism powerful group experience
by Jonathan Beachy, San Antonio, Texas
Having spent the night in the county jail as a correctional health nurse, I’m trying to grasp the depth of several reflections on being Mennonite and baptism practices (Jan. 8 issue). Messed up circadian rhythms aren’t my only challenge; other contexts and cultures that have formed me also debate within me.
As a prison chaplain in Paraguay, I had the privilege of baptizing scores of men for whom the symbol of dying to a past life—as represented by their baptism—became a power for the individual as well as a corporate (body) statement. On the one hand, baptism by immersion spoke of a man, whose life was destructive to both self and society, dying and being re-birthed. On the other, it spoke of the family into which he was now born; commitments were made by both.
From that experience of baptism, it seems to me that Carl Landis’ call for “life-changing obedience” might well find an expression in discovering anew what powerful symbols are present in baptism of adults into a mutually committed community of faith. Being vulnerable with each other about areas of our lives that need to be given the death sentence, and affirming our newness of life, helps us find a balance between independence and the interdependence body of Christ.
Associated Issue: Mennonite but not Anabaptist - Jan. 8, 2008
Associated Article: Mennonite but not Anabaptist
Current Stories
Articles
News stories, digests and Meno Acontecer
- Janet Breneman ordained in Lancaster
- MMA expands partnership with credit union
- Church schools have great fiscal years
- Husband releases wife’s final peace book
- Led by little ones
- Of cats, sacraments and ‘pagan’ flags
- EMU grad shows Washington insider photos
- Volunteer is ‘keeper’ of refugee stories
- Respect for prisoners’ rights in Haiti
- Anabaptism, living the gospel not different
- Amid violence in Congo, MCC sends food
- MMA introduces budget, debt counseling
- Documentary on aging features Mennonites
- Kenyan church leaders face refugee crisis
Columns
- Watch for worldviews
- Why teach at a Mennonite school?
- God’s faithfulness, promises and giving
- Schools, transfiguration and the Super Bowl