“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…”  Matthew 28:19-20a

Jesus’ final words, as Matthew records them, are among the most central to historic Christianity. Jesus instructs the apprentices to His way of life (the disciples) to multiply themselves. In some cases, this gets interpreted flatly as: “Go make converts…” In that sense, the principle goal of faith is merely to give to someone a fresh thought on the spiritual life. But, Jesus tells people who have recklessly given up their lives to follow Him to help other people to do the same foolish thing. And, the task has the whole world in view.

Then He instructs His own disciples (the insecure, shallow, power-hungry, people-pleasing, attention-grabbers that they were) to baptize these new apprentices. They’ll immerse these new disciples in water, symbolic of dying to an old life. Then, they’ll be lifted up out of the water soaked in new life with Jesus.

For a lot of us, we wonder how to “disciple” people. What does that really mean? We neither want to seem pushy nor insincere about conveying what life with Jesus is really about. Churches have a number of ways in which people come to understand all of what it means to walk with Jesus. No system is truly perfect. But, the best methods involve discussion, authentic relationships, personal experiences with the practices of discipleship, and (not least) an examination of God’s Word, the Bible. Mariners’ method is called ROOTED. If you are looking to get the clearest picture of what it means to follow Jesus, Rooted is for you. If you are a person taking Jesus’ commission seriously, consider inviting people to join you in a Rooted experience (even if you’ve already been a part of one). Get signed up for Rooted here.

This Sunday, we’ll celebrate, publicly, what life with Jesus is about in baptism. It’s a powerful symbol succinctly telling the story of letting old things go and embracing the Holy Spirit infused newness of life that is given to us in Jesus. If you’ve never been baptized as an adult, consider what is holding you back. Baptism isn’t a gimmick. It’s a powerful public marker, made in the presence of the church family, of the work Jesus has done and is doing in our lives. Email Kim Alexander to let us know if you’d like to be baptized. But, should you show up and wish you had emailed us, don’t worry about it, the water’s fine. We’ll make room.

I cannot think of a better way to illustrate all of what Jesus accomplished during Easter weekend than with Baptism. I am as excited about this coming Sunday as I have been for any since I started at Mariners.

See you Sunday,

Jeff