The Anglican Doctrine of Baptism, by Lee Gatiss

Lee Gatiss:

My personal experience of having such honest conversations is that it can create greater interest in the gospel amongst non-church-attending, unbelieving parents who have a vague sense that they should bring their child to God but no real understanding of why. Once I was privileged to bring a new father to Christ himself first, and baptise him, before later baptising his daughter who he had originally come to see me about. He was struck by my explanation of the seriousness of what he was asking for and realised he needed to know more about Christianity. On another occasion, a father decided after much thought that he could not take part in his child’s baptism service because he realised after the weeks of preparation that he was not right with God and could not sincerely say what he was required to say publicly. This opened up more valuable evangelistic conversations. Bishop Colin Buchanan rightly suggests that “If we grant baptism on request, we trivialise the Lord’s provision, lead parents into declarations which mean nothing to them, and often precipitate a reaction against infant baptism by strong believers whom we thus lose to Anabaptists.” [27] It is certainly true that if we become mere dispensers of indiscriminate, unexplained baptisms we are missing out on the gospel opportunities which such baptism enquiries can open up, failing in our duties before God even while we attempt perhaps to be obedient to the letter of canon law.

Issue 63 Article 4 - The Anglican Doctrine of Baptism - Affinity