Beliefs and Promises of the Nostalgic Order of Junior Baptists

Click to enlarge: A picture of a baptism at a Baptist church. This one is at Bethel Baptist Church in Erie, PA when it was located at East 26th Street. That's Pastor Kenneth L Andrus doing the baptizing. I don't recognize the person being baptized. This would have been 1982.

In a Baptist baptism, as practiced when I was a boy, the pastor holds a small cloth over the baptizee's mouth and nose, says "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," and immerses him/her once.[1] There is also often a short sermon beforehand, and each baptizee makes a public profession of faith and may also give a short personal testimony. The ceremony is usually held on Sundays after the evening service and may last a half hour or so for a handful baptisms.

It's all very simple, conducted in a baptismal pool in the church. No big screen TVs or music. And even though participants view it as purely symbolic, it's also very reverent, and the casual observer could be forgiven for thinking the ceremony is part of the salvation process.

Baptists believe you must first believe before being baptized, and be old enough to understand it. Therefore, most Baptist churches will not elicit a profession of faith from anyone younger than 6 years old and will not baptize anyone under that age either. Most children being baptized are tweens or teens.

Junior Membership
Junior membership in the church is often included with the baptism of a young person. When the person reaches age 12 and demonstrates suitable maturity, they are allowed to apply for full church membership and be voted upon by the congregation at a church business meeting (which for Bethel was monthly on Wednesday nights after prayer meeting).

I'm not sure when voting privileges began at Bethel; that might have been age 18. I voted a few times before leaving for college.

Click to enlarge: This is Bethel Baptist Church (which was at that time at 737 E. 26th Street in Erie, PA - map >). It also housed Bethel Christian School for many years. I attended Bethel Christian School 7th-9th grade. I have very fond memories of that time and the friends I met there.

Membership is predicated on beliefs and promises.

Assenting to both is fairly straightforward. It comes in two parts (when I was a boy):

1. What the church teaches and what you must agree to in order to be a member (Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, a real Adam and Eve, global flood, etc). "What the church teaches" and "what the bible teaches" are considered synonymous.

2. Behavioral expectations (in Bethel's case, no drinking, smoking, card playing, dancing, etc). Tithing and Sunday attendance are encouraged but no one is asked to make promises regarding these.

Being a Baptist is cast largely in terms of what you should believe and what you should not do, sometimes with a subtext of "what we do not believe and what we should do." Which is not to say any of that is bad, only that Baptists prefer a faith painted with stark colors and simple patterns, and that is often easiest to model and teach.

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I don't mean to sound like I'm trivializing any of this. Quite the opposite. I have very fond memories of Bethel and my own conversion and baptism. I'm being rather clinical in order to document the memory for someone who may have no context.


[2013-07-10]

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[1]
I have no idea if "baptizee" is a word or not, but I couldn't find a suitable alternative.

Baptism in the name of the Trinity is important. It is often a qualifier among like-minded Christians - from Baptist to Catholic - for determining if you've really been baptized or not. There can be others, too. Catholics don't care if you've been immersed or sprinkled. Baptists do. And some (like the Brethren, I think), insist on three immersions, once for each Person of the Trinity.

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