My friend AC was just licensed as a minister and asked me to walk him through our baptism process since it is his 1st baptism this weekend. Going to be great! Here’s what I sent him:

Fill out a baptism card
Before every baptism service we have cards that students fill out with their basic information, as well as a few questions about their faith and spiritual life. Parent permission is required to be baptized in our high school ministry.

Explain what baptism is
Baptism is a symbol of what God has already done in our hearts. He has made us a new creature, He has washed away our sins. This is only possible through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism doesn’t save you, it is normal water and actually nice and warm on a cold night like this – the water is a picture of the cross (the water and the person form a cross), the death (when the person is put under the water) and the resurrection (when the person is brought back up) of Jesus Christ. Today you are identifying yourself as a follower of Jesus Christ and taking this first step of obedience.

Ask everyone to participate
The baptism isn’t just about one person – it is also a time to celebrate and commit to walking alongside them in community as well. We have several traditions in HSM, one being that we all cheer (and join with the rejoicing in Heaven) when someone comes up out of the water. We also take a moment to pray for the person being baptized as well.

Pictures/videos
Pause for a quick picture break!

Ask the individual questions/testimony
At this point, I like to ask the person being baptized a few questions about the faith and testimony. For sure they need to be able to articulate the basics of their love for Jesus.

The actual words/process of baptism
Well, (name) based on your testimony, it is my privilege to baptize you on the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Buried with Him in baptism (put them under the water), raised to walk (bring them up) in newness of life. [everyone cheers!] I like to hug the person being baptized, and then splash a few other people gathered around. Ha!

Invite others to be baptized
As I wrap things up I like the tradition of inviting others to be baptized – it rarely happens right there, but we have baptisms on the first weekend of every month and want to make it a practice to make that known.

Got any questions? Leave it in the comments and I’ll do a FAQ follow-up post!

JG

We played this video last week in HSM … so funny.

JG

Each week the sermon bumper video for this series grows by 20-30 seconds – here’s part 2 (of 6) for our student-version of the 40 Days in the Word campaign, The Book.

JG

Weekend Teaching Series: The Book (church-wide 40 Days in the Word campaign kickoff)
Sermon in a Sentence: The Bible is the only rule of faith and practice and has been preserved and inspired.

Service Length: 77 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend we kicked off our church-wide campaign called 40 Days in the Word. In HSM we get to take on the same subjects and theme as the rest of the church but put our own student-friendly spin on it. This weekend I made comparisons of books sales of Hunger Games and Harry Potter vs. the Bible. I also talked about preservation (using the Declaration of Independence as a modern-day example) and the Dead Sea scrolls. It was by far a more historical and classroom-oriented lesson than we would typically have on the weekend, but it was incredibly fun to research and students seemed genuinely interested in this series. Going to be fun to see where this one goes.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend we played a quick game of Who Wants to Be a Fraction of a Millionaire featuring Bible trivia questions. We also had too many announcements and a hilarious video called iBible which we ripped from YouTube.

Music Playlist: Brighter Days, Lift Him Up, Words That You Say

Up next: The Book: 40 Days in the Word (week 2 of 6)

Sweet new series video for The Book, HSM’s student version of the 40 Days in the Word church-wide. Parker is doing some awesome stuff with the videos, it’ll get new addition/expansion each week of the series, too!

JG

Weekend Teaching Series: [re]THINK: Why Am I a Christian? (series finale, week 2 of 2)
Sermon in a Sentence: Some real reasons to be confident that Christianity is true and a challenge to know your faith.

Service Length: 89 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend we brought in Brett Kunkle from Stand to Reason to help teach about the foundation for faith asking the most basic of question: why am I a Christian? Last weekend he took apart the poor reasons (used very commonly) as a defense of someone’s faith and pushed students to think critically about why they believe what they believe. It was a solid weekend that I’m praying causes students to challenge their faith now rather than lose it their freshman year of college. If you’re looking for a strong apologetics speaker, we’ve had great success with both Brett and Sean McDowell in the past.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This we played a fun game called Frog or Duck? based on a hilarious iPhone game called Animal Translate. We also played “I Love Mission” music video as a way to promote our You Own the Weekend series right after the church-wide campaign ends.

Music Playlist: Something in the Water, Oh Jesus, Avalanche, Forever, Divine and Holy

Up next: The Book: 40 Days in the Word (church-wide campaign begins, week 1 of 6)

THE BOOK
Student 40 Days in the Word Campaign

Week 1: The Authority of the Bible
Where did the Bible come from? How did we end up with the Bible we have today even though it is several thousand years old? How is the Bible different than other holy books like the Koran or the book or Mormon? Didn’t men just write it? The Bible is our only rule for faith and practice and was written by the inspiration of God and preserved for us without error today. But here’s the dirty little secret of Christians: no one reads it.

Week 2: Love, God
Why was the Bible written? The Bible is God’s love letter to us. The Bible tells Jesus story. The Bible reveals so much about life, God and eternity. We’ll cover the whole Bible themes as a whole and end with the idea that the Bible essentially ends with “Love, God” and then gives us ultimate challenge to love God.

Week 3: Bible Words You Need to Know
There are some huge words and concepts in the Bible that need to be explained and reveal huge truths about God and our relationship with Him. What does “sanctification” mean? How are we “born again”? Does “Ask Jesus into my heart” appear anywhere in the Bible? These questions and more in this message about Christian language you might here at church.

Week 4: OT Survey
An overview of the entire Old Testament in 30 minutes. We’ll cover each of the major divisions of the first half of the Bible and hit on themes and observations from a look at 35,000ft. A clothesline on stage will be hung with pictures of various important events covered in the Scripture.

Week 5: NT Survey
An overview of the entire New Testament in 30 minutes. We’ll cover each of the major divisions of the first half of the Bible and hit on themes and observations from a look at 35,000ft. A clothesline on stage will be hung with pictures of various important events covered in the Scripture.

Week 6: How to Study the Bible
This weekend we’ll cover the basics on how to study the Bible. We’ll do our best to explain and make practical the Bible study techniques of observation, illumination, meditation, interpretation and application. The message will end with a recap of the series as well as a challenge to spend time with God every day.

JG

Weekend Teaching Series: [re]THINK: Why Am I a Christian? (series premiere, week 1 of 2)
Sermon in a Sentence: Why are you a Christian? Because you were raised that way? It is just right? Because of your experience? There has to be more to it than that.

Service Length: 80 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend we brought in Brett Kunkle from Stand to Reason to help teach about the foundation for faith asking the most basic of question: why am I a Christian? His goal was to deconstruct some of the typical answers and build a foundation for genuine faith that will stand the tests of college and adulthood. It was a great talk and Brett did a great job relating and connecting students in this part 1 of his 2-part series.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend we programmed light to give our special speaker the most time, but still had a fun video “We Like Tesoro,” baptisms and we announced the You Own the Weekend weeks coming up in March. And the first weekend of the year we always ask everyone to fill out an information card as well, so we have the latest info and get everyone on the HSM text lists, etc.

Music Playlist: Paradise (Coldplay cover), Your Love Never Fails, All I Am, We Shine

Favorite Moment: Without a doubt my favorite moment was at the end of the message, when he left them in a bit of a cliffhanger and didn’t resolve all of the questions and tension in the room. He ended with a fictional story about people gathering every week to worship Peter Pan and challenged to think of Christianity beyond the fairy tale and to know the objective truth of our faith. Really great!

Up next: [re]THINK: Why Am I a Christian? (week 2 of 2)

New Year Announcements from Saddleback Church on Vimeo.

Fun little twist on announcements this past weekend in our adult services. We planned a family service for the whole family and let people know it was going to be fun right out of the gate!

JG

Weekend Teaching Series: Christmas Weekend (1-off)
Sermon in a Sentence: A student-run service of songs, teaching and Christmas fun.

Service Length: 76 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend was all about Christmas – it was a 1-off celebration of the birth of Jesus. Students ran the entire service from top to bottom. Bryce got up first to introduce the subject for the weekend and the heart behind Christmas. He emphasied the true meaning of Christmas amid the lights, sounds and presents of the season. After a few songs AJ spoke about Jesus being the humble King and after another song Julia got up to speak about God’s holiness. They all had verses and Scripture when Ryan got up to teach he used a clip from The Guardian to bring home the idea of Jesus the Rescuer. We rounded out the program with a few more songs and an invitation at the end.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend was a ton of fun with HSM’s new Christmas music video and hot chocolate and cookies after every service. Lots of energy and fun for the last high school services of 2011!

Music Playlist: Mary Did You Know, Silent Night, Born is the King, You Hold the World in Your Hands, O Holy Night, Savior of the World, Go/Joy to the World, Drummer Boy

Favorite Moment: See students basically run the entire service is so incredible. I love being taught by and being led in worship by students. My heart was so full after this weekend, that’s for sure!

Up next: No HSM services – Christmas services in big church!