Parent/Child Dedication

Weekly Update – May 18th, 2023

Last Sunday, we had, what we called, a parent/child dedication.  At First Baptist Church, we want to be a community that not only celebrates children, but we also want to be a place that stands with parents to equip, support, encourage and pray for them as they seek to lead their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  That means that as joyful as it was to watch six young families present their children to the church, there is also this responsibility that we all have to continually care for one another as we seek to fulfill our vision of seeing our families, our community and our world transformed by the power of God.

As these families came up to the front, we spent this time formally committing to them, as they committed to us, to lead their children on the path towards knowing and loving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  This commitment included a series of statements that our dedicating parents affirmed, as well as a statement that we as the church affirmed together as well.  Here are those statements that the parents affirmed with the reply of “we will”

• Will you, as God enables, seek to raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord?

• Will you, as God enables, seek to teach your children the Word of God, and to endeavor to be a model of Christ-likeness for them?

• Will you, as God enables, seek to consistently provide your children with discipline and reproof, for their correction and training, so that they will cease their foolishness and become wise?

• Will you, as God enables, seek to do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5), witnessing to those God brings into your lives, sharing with them the love and mercy provided alone in Jesus Christ, and to instill in your children the same desire to share this eternal message?

• Will you, as God enables, seek to love your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, all the while desiring to see your children do the same? 

After our parents affirmed these statements, together as the church, we affirmed the following statement:

• Will you, First Baptist Church, seek to love these families fervently, from the heart? Will you invest and share your lives with them? Will you be diligent and earnest in your Prayers for the salvation of their children? Will you encourage them, admonish them, rebuke them, instruct them, and build them up in Christ? Will you be patient and kind with them? And will walk beside them in love, striving with them for their own faith and for the faith of their children, until the Day of Christ?

Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  According to Jesus, this is the greatest commandment that we are called to follow (Matt. 22:37).  Right after this call in Deuteronomy 6:5 though, verse 7 says, “You shall teach (this commandment) diligently to your children…”  This call was given, not just to the parents of children, but to the community of God’s people.  Likewise, we as First Baptist Church have the responsibility to ensure that the next generation, not only hears the good news of Jesus Christ, but is taught what it means to love him with everything we are.  Lets commit to that call as a church as we partner with our parents in the Lord. 

Serving Him with You,
Pastor Michael Nelson