Baptism in a theater

Privileged, favorite moments don't occur often but when they do, enjoy them. Revel in them! And that's just what we did at Lifehouse 2 weeks ago. We hosted our first raucous baptism gathering following our morning service. Here's what I loved about it:hundreds of people from Lifehouse were able to celebrate with the 10-12 that were baptized,

• it felt more like a family celebration than a religious ceremony,
• we screamed and cheered wildly for those who were making their public declaration of faith in Jesus,
• the theater was transformed into sacred ground, a place where so many have made decisions to follow and grow in their decision for Christ. Now, it has become a place where we can also celebrate those decisions through the next step of baptism,
• the water was warm (thanks Don for getting the gas-powered heater to warm up the water)
• I love firsts, so it was cool that it was our first baptism at the theater (and only a week after the previous cinema company moved out,
• I got baptized (well, not in a theological, sacrament sense, but in a chucked in the water like a play toy by Pastor Dave sense),

Here are some cool photos:

Congratulations to all who were baptized!

Some changes to our next baptism, coming soon:

• I'd like to invite the person who invited the baptism candidate to share their personal story of how they met, introduced Jesus to the new Jesus-follower,
• Invite the friend to baptized the candidate.

As the lead pastor, I want to give away to others this awesome moment, rather than holding on to it. Let's pass around the joy and victory.