Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Some of you have seen my thread about this past weekend's "Raised to Life' night of praise and worship at my church.

When we do these Praise & Worship nights (usually quarterly) we also make that weekend a baptism weekend with baptisms on the Praise & Worship night and then at all three Sunday services.

Our church is not in a conventional church building so there is no baptistry. For our baptismal services we bring in two very large rubber tubs (maybe for watering cattle I think).

I just saw the total numbers and can tell you that between Friday nights Praise & Worship night and the three services yesterday a total of 72 people were baptized in Jesus name!

Note: for those of you concerned that we don't offer baptisms every service I assure you that if someone wants to be baptized before one of our baptismal services we will gladly find a place to do it.

Our church is a little over five years old and has now baptized well over 500 people in Jesus name over those five years.

When we moved into our new building about 1 1/2 years ago we were averaging around 450 folks between our three Sunday services. The first Sunday was Easter Sunday 2013 and we had 703 people there. It has been steady growth since then with 1,229 in attendance yesterday.

Great numbers but when you look at the number of people in my town of 100,000 that don't attend any church on Sunday we have a lot more to do.

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Here is a link to the video of the sermon on baptism Sunday 8/10/14. The link is to the Experience Community media / lessons page. For the baptism sermon video click on the picture labeled "Baptism" that is on the far right of the first row of choices once you are on that page.

http://experiencecc.com/media.php

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Pretty good baptism message. Typical PCI doctrine. Didn't particularly care for "heck" and "screw", but then I'm a traditionalist Pentecostal.

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

He has been trying to do better! LOL. I will tell him about your post. If you get a chance check out #2 in the sermon series "Raise to Life". I listened to it on a business trip today and I think a lot of people would like it. One the media page it is actuall the 3rd button from the left of the buttons marked "Raised to life".

Normally all three of our services have the same sermon as we go through the bible by chapter and verse but Pastor felt led to do this 7 week series on Sunday nights that deviated from the norm. The 6 pm service is heavily skewed towards a younger demographic and I think the content of this sermon is what every young person needs to hear. Particularly those not raised up in church.

http://experiencecc.com/media.php

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Always willing to help. :nod

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Can't find the sermon, just a short intro?

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Because I am an idiot. I said to look for "Raised to Life" and that was the name of our Praise & Worship night, not the name of this series. Let me check it out and I will post the correct info. The name of this series is "It starts with you".

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

On the "Media / Lessons" page click on the "More Videos" button then go to page two and select "It Starts With You - Family". It is the second sermon in the "It Starts With You" series. I will paste what I hope is the direct URL to take you to that page 2 of "more videos";

https://vimeo.com/experiencecc/videos/page:2/sort:date

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Thanks.

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

I listened. He does good. He really needs to drop the slang (boobs, screw, butt). I realize that he is IDing with his crowd, but JFTR I didn't like it from Jeff Arnold either. jmho

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

It isn't some kind of act with him. That is him. I think the demographic of our church appreciates his frankness and everyday language. I do understand your position from a traditional perspective. Thanks for the kind words about Pastor!

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

You're welcome. Now tell him to go wash his mouth out with soap. :heeheehee

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

It's emergent church so the rougher they sound the rougher they look the better.

It's almost like they teach a Jesus who is some dude who wore Birkenstock, drank at a micro brewery, smoked Pall Malls, and walked around in a bed sheet.

Paul got knocked down on his...what?

http://cdn.arwrath.com/1/114852.gif

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Hey I guess this is where we are heading in Churchanity, we went from Pennycost to Here Comes Honey Boo Boo?

Whatever. :banghead

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

That is a ridiculous comparison.

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

After listening to the preacher in the video, I think it was spot on. :thumbsup

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

What is his background?

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

I wonder if Bro LS feels the same about
some of the comments made here concerning
his preaching. :hmmm

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

I would certainly hope so! I am sure he sincerely believes he is preaching great things.

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Mormons? :happydance

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Ok....I have to ask...what does he do good at? What is good about his message or presentation/preaching?

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Did you watch / listen to it so you could judge for yourself? Or are you just figuring out where he was coming from in his post? I am just curious. Sometimes posts are hard to figure out what the person is thinking.

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

I watched and said "he did good". No hidden meaning. Nothing to figure out. Just Good. 1. He stuck to his thought, didn't ramble. 2. He knew what he was talking about. 3. Had good illustrations. 4. The audience seemed to enjoy his lesson. I could give you the negatives, but...

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

I listened to two videos entitled "it starts with you" (I see that there are three) and I would agree with you that "he did good" yet, the particular words you previously mentioned in other posts didn't need to be used by the preacher . I guess he isn't wanting to preach to a larger audience ranging from different ages, but is mainly focusing on one group. A group who enjoys being cursed at while they are listening to a preacher "teach?"

Paul the Apostle was knocked down on his....

My wife was taking our children to a home school group which was out of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale and had to leave because the preacher/facilitator/speaker started to use what CC1 calls "everyday language."

Yes, Brother Jeff Arnold has used phrases which IMO didn't need to be fired over a pulpit.

But if Brother Arnold was being operated on I wouldn't post a disclaimer before I offered prayer.

:nod

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

He has the testimony of coming out of drugs and hanging out with rock bands.

Possibly CC1 can help us with the man's religious background?

Maybe his background was with Werner Erhard?

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Yes I watched it.

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Ok I was just wondering if you were complimenting his message or his presentation. I'm pretty certain I understand where you are coming from.

Once in a college speech class the we were assigned topics to debate and we were allowed to chose our side of the debate then the class was to vote in which side would win the debate based on the presentation. One group was debating same sex marriage. The conservative side of the debate was very ill prepared and had no strong argument while the liberal side did a "good job" presenting their views. Based on that I was forced to set aside my convictions and had to vote for the side which presented their case the best.

In the same way I would say "He did a good job".

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

The guy did a "good job" with the subject matter. I really didn't watch to critique him, but was interested in his presentation on water baptism. He did a "good job" of presenting a PCI view of Jesus name baptism. Sorry I mentioned it. :nod

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Actually some statements were bordering on the truth.:thumbsup he seems conflicted?

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

Especially when he read from the Bible. :heeheehee

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

The pastor has a lot of UPC relatives but was not raised in church. His parents divorced when he was 10 and he was unchurched until about 12 years ago. He was in his 20's and into drugs and a member of a rock band. He had reached a really low point as he was diagnosed with MS or something like that and was having trouble even walking so had to use a wheelchair some.

He went to a UPC church because that was one he knew about from relatives. He came to the Lord and later became that churches Youth pastor until a falling out with the pastor. This was about five years ago and when he started the church he pastors now.

He is not trying to be anything but himself with the way he speaks. He has a college degree in English and speaks very well whether old time Pentecostals like his informal language or not.

Not only does he relate to younger folks but regarding the demographics of the church over the past three years as it has grown there has been a tremendous influx of 30ish folks (typically families with young children) and older folks. In addition there are quite a few folks in their 40's and 50's. I will admit I don't see many in the geriatric age group so a few in their 60's but I don't know of any in their 70's and beyond.

He doesn't want to be a traditional typical pastor nor does he want this church to be a typical traditional church. There are plenty of those around for people who want that type of enviroment.

The Experience Community is based on the word of God being infallible and preaching it all (hence going through the bible book by book and verse by verse) without avoiding any of the hard or offensive parts.

It is not based on continuing church traditions just for the sake of church traditions. We don't take an offering. We just point out during announcements where the offering / tithe containers are on the communion tables. We have communion every service at the end. Our emphasis is on the word so the service only consists of a pres-service video, praise and worship set, announcements, psa viddeo, sermon bumper video, and the sermon. 50 minutes of the service is the sermon, 30 minutes music.

The physical plant is intentionally not "churchy" in the traditional sense. We are in a 100+ year old warehouse so we have left the feel the same. Bare concrete floor except for carpet under the chairs in the sanctuary. A mix of modern and old. The decorations are paintings done by people in the church and art pieces from Praise & Worship Nights (some are three dimensional large signs hanging).

Without a doubt many old time Pentecostals would find themselves out of their element and uncomfortable. However that is not the demographic we are reaching for. We are reaching for the unchurched or those who do not like traditional church or won't even give it a chance because of preconceived notions.

Personally I am happy at this church and would be just as happy at a more traditional church in the sense of the physical plant and being more formal. Not a heaven or hell issue for me. I do think that different churches have different personalities and different ministries so our church, while reaching for all people, will naturally appeal to the demographic I already mentioned and traditional churches will appeal to older folks or those raised in them.

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

This all sounds like a mix of Chuck Smith Calvary Chapel, and Driscoll's Mars Hill Church.

Nothing new.

Hey, CC1 weren't you in another church hence the moniker CC1?

Is this church part of that one?

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

You the oldest guy there?:heeheehee

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

LOL!!! Three years ago the 50+ folks were pretty hard to find. The first couple of years the church was mostly college kids and homeless people. However we now have a broad deomographic including some 40-60 year olds. Biggest age group is probably 20-40.

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A few years ago my wife had her second back surgery and we could no longer travel the 45 minutes each way it took us to go to our previous church.

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

LOL!!! I have sat under his ministry for three years now and he probably the least conflicted of any pastor I have sat under. Things that are black and white and we know for sure he has strong positions on. Things like prophecy, etc he has positions he believes are most likely but doesn't present his view as the only possible one. Regarding salvation and baptism he is not conflicted at all. He believes baptism is very important and a commandment we are to follow. He just isn't ready to condem somebody to hell who hasn't done it yet.

Did you listen to his message on fmily we were discussing here also? (I am assuming your comments were about his baptism sermon)

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

What made you choose this church and this preacher? Or was it because the church was across the street from your home? :)

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

We had been a part of another local church for about a year before this became our church. We loved the church we were a part of and the only reason we moved to this one was that my daughter and her husband were members and she was a praise and worship singer there. We visited their second service a few times after ours to hear her sing and support her. We got to know the church and pastor and were very impressed with both. At that time attendance between the three services was probably about 150 people.

Eventually I started wondering if we should go help out this new small church that had almost no financial base (college kids and homeless people made up the bulk of the membership) but loved our church so much I never felt a clear answer either way. One day after church I talked to my pastor about the situation and he did something I never witnessed much in old time Pentecost. He knew this pastor and his work and said he was a good man and he knew this small church probably needed elder saints and help. That we should tell the pastor we were going to go there for a few months to help out and see where things lead. My pastor told me that after these few months if we felt that was the place we needed to be for us to stay but if not his church was our home and we were always welcome home.

Ironically the small church I went to help is now at least twice as big as the "bigger" church I left three years ago.

Although I don't believe one will miss heaven if not baptized I do believe it is an important thing and also while I don't believe a person will miss heaven over the words said over them at baptism I do believe that the correct, biblical way is in Jesus name so it was important to me that a church I am part of baptizes in Jesus name. I have been a part of just 4 churches over the last 31 years and all have baptized in Jesus name. One in the state we previously lived in for 16 years and then 3 at our present location in Middle Tennessee where we have lived the past 15 years. About 10 of these last fifteen years was spent at Christ Church Nashville before we had to find a church closer to home.

Re: Baptism Weekend - 72 Baptized in Jesus Name!
 

This is what I meant, when I posted "typical PCI doctrine".