Making Baptism Matter

The previous blog presented material from D. Jay Koyle’s essay in Liturgy on baptism, offering reasons for the decline in importance some churches have placed on this initiatory sacrament.

Many congregations, even denominations, not only wonder what kind of future they have, but whether they have a future at all. As a result, survival strategies are placed at the top of the agenda. Such an emphasis hastens, rather than reverses, decline. Although dying can bring stunning clarity, fear of death blurs vision. . . .

Nervousness about dwindling numbers in plate and pew stokes our reluctance to embrace any practice or policy that could deter even the most casual involvement in our churches. Over time, our anxiety has engendered a membership that is less and less shaped by the mind of Christ. Instead, inclusivity that is unrelated to the way of Jesus has become our guiding principle. The convergence of font and paschal feast in the ancient church that our rites today prompt us to recover may have much to teach us. It does not easily suggest itself, however, to a church for which survival is a dominant motivation. . . .

How might we break our Christendom habits, counter our consumerist presuppositions, overcome the preoccupation with survival, and recognize baptism for what it is and what it can do to unleash a vital and faithful church? . . .

Here are some of Koyle’s ideas for returning to the life-changing meaning of baptism. He holds out the prospect of congregations responding to the future with baptismal promises at the forefront rather than fear of dying.

We might begin this work by prompting Kingdom conversations in every facet of congregational life. If conversation truly is the currency of change, then what we invite people to talk, think, and pray about blazes the path into the future. . . . Therefore, in meetings, study or working groups, and in any devotional time, we should ask questions that differ from the usual fare. Too often, we read a snippet of scripture and then quickly look for how it applies to our lives. Dwell instead on who God is and what God is doing. Ask questions such as:

• What word, image, phrase stands out for you?
• Where is God in or behind this text? What is God/Christ/the Spirit up to in this passage?
• What characteristics of God or God’s reign does this story reveal or suggest to you?
• What promise of God for the world do you hear in this passage?
• Where have you seen or experienced this action or promise of God in your life? In the church/this congregation?
• Is there anything in our worship that this story brings to mind? Anything in other aspects of our congregation’s life?
• Do you see God at work to fulfill this promise in the world today? If so, where? If not, what do you think it would look like if God were doing so?
• How do the affirmations and pledges made in baptism reflect and respond to God’s promises?
• . . . What would it look like if this church lived in expectant anticipation of the promises we have identified?

D. Jay Koyle, is a presbyter serving as Congregational Development Officer for the Diocese of Algoma (Anglican Church of Canada) who also teaches at Huron University College in London, Ontario.

D. Jay Koyle, “The Mistaken Identity of Baptism,” Liturgy 31, no. 2 (2016), 11-19.

What is the Matter with Baptism?

The Spring 2016 issue of Liturgy offers essays on Christian Initiation. D. Jay Koyle’s essay focuses on baptism itself, particularly because the perspective currently held in many of our churches toward this sacrament has been in contention in recent years.  

As Koyle shows, cultural changes have led to baptism being considered in many of our churches a naming ceremony primarily for infants. The theological importance of baptism, however, is about God’s power and the astonishing proclamation of the new reality of God’s Reign.

By nature, baptism is a subversive sacrament that initiates persons into a community God called into being to experience, reveal, signal, and participate in the coming and already-present Kingdom. Yet, far too many see baptism as little more than a sweet ceremony that washes stains from souls and carries them across the ecclesial threshold into the lobby of the household of faith. Beyond that, we act like there is little it can do. As a result, we mistake baptism as a harmless trickle of water when it is a waterfall of eschatological proportions. Why does the church perpetuate this case of mistaken identity and what can be done about it? . . .

In order to understand what can be done, we have to know how we arrived at this place. Koyle says the church has, over time, adopted a utilitarian perspective on a sacrament that had for centuries been a much richer sign of initiation by God into the church.

In Christendom, baptism had come to function largely as a pastoral rite, a ceremony tied to the human life cycle, even if confessional statements claimed otherwise. Rubrics pressed parents to bring their newborns to pass through the waters of the font as soon as possible after those infants had passed through the waters of the womb. In my own Anglican tradition, the rite’s placement in the prayer book was located with the pastoral offices tied to the stages of life (marriage, visitation of the sick, burial). This notion of baptism became even stronger when transplanted to the domain of private life. . . . [continuing] . . . to regard the infant as the normative candidate and to treat baptism as a family ceremony at least as much as an ecclesial one, scheduled to serve the convenience of the family calendar. Indeed, a recent informal survey of church websites revealed that most congregations speak of baptism in these terms, emphasizing the meaning of baptism as “joining the church family” and asking God’s blessing upon the newborn candidates and their families.

Along with other secular institutions, the church has become infested with the notion that people are primarily “consumers” for whom services are to be performed at their convenience and according to their understanding.

The consumerist bias ensures that the usual starting point for many congregations that aspire to revitalization and growth is, “How can we make ourselves more attractive? How can we make the Gospel relevant to people today?” That these questions come to our minds and trip off our tongues so readily is understandable. Our market share is shrinking, after all; we see fewer people displaying an interest in joining with us in sacrament and song on Sundays. . . .
 Though well-meaning, it may be that our faith communities are barking up the wrong tree. What if the issue at hand is not how to make the Gospel relevant for the culture? . . .  The late liturgical theologian Alexander Schmemann. . . surveyed efforts to spark renewal and growth, and he found himself shaking his head at strategies designed to render the church more attractive and relevant. He observed as early as 1968 that the problem facing us today is not that the Gospel has become irrelevant to the society. He noted that the Gospel has always been “foolishness to the Greeks.” No, the problem is not that the Gospel has become irrelevant to the society, but rather that the Kingdom has become irrelevant to the church.

Koyle has ideas about re-enlivening the church’s relationship with the sacrament of baptism. Please see the posting here in two weeks, on April 22 for more.

D. Jay Koyle, is a presbyter serving as Congregational Development Officer for the Diocese of Algoma (Anglican Church of Canada) who also teaches at Huron University College in London, Ontario. 

D. Jay Koyle, “The Mistaken Identity of Baptism,” Liturgy 31, no. 2 (2016), 11-19.