After getting connected to a Home Team, they attended a group baptism celebration and witnessed 5 group members’ baptisms. This was Lindsay’s first time to witness someone being baptized by immersion in an up-close and personal way. She had been sprinkled as a child in the church she grew up in. In the church that Glenn had grown up in, he couldn’t remember there being an “emphasis” placed on getting baptized. They enjoyed the experience and talked about it later, but neither of them felt as if it was a step they were ready to take at the time.
It wasn’t until Pastor Cody Courter preached about having baptized his neighbor in their neighborhood swimming pool, that Lindsay turned to her husband and asked, “What are we waiting for?” On their way home from church, Lindsey called their Home Team Leaders, Dan and Dana Doerflinger and asked to be baptized that very evening as part of their Home Team meeting. The answer, of course, was “yes!”. They were both baptized that night in the company of their close friends.
When asked to describe the difference baptism has made in their lives, Glenn described it as being “a new beginning.” He feels that he is less encumbered by decisions and situations that existed before and is freer to build his life based on Christ’s leading. Lindsay said that for her it was a release. She’s a self-proclaimed rule-follower and control person. She reported that making the conscious decision that God has the ultimate control has helped her relax and be more effective in all her roles as a wife, mom, teacher, and leader.
Around the same time as her parents’ baptism, Glenn and Lindsay celebrated as their ten-year-old daughter, Leah, also decided to take the step of baptism. Six-year-old Jackie is now also asking questions about baptism and they look forward to sharing that experience with her. When asked if they would encourage others to follow Jesus in baptism, Glenn and Lindsay agreed that it was not a decision to be taken lightly, but one they would never forget.