Acceptance | Baptism | Church | Love | Sin

THE CHURCH’S SCOPE OF ACCEPTANCE
We include this particularly denominational illustration because it teaches a powerful principle of acceptance. Whether one holds to infant baptism or not, the truth is that those who consider themselves excluded need to visibly see the acceptance of the loving congregation. In October of 1990, at “The Gathering” an international United Methodist event, held in Ft. Worth, Texas, I had the opportunity to participate in a class led by Dr. David Kerr on “Invitational Preaching.” He told a story about one Sunday morning holding an infant baptism for an infant as part of the regular morning service. That morning he also chose to preach about baptism and how we are accepted by God’s Grace and by God’s unconditional love. At the close of the message he gave an invitation. No sooner had the invitation been spoken than a fourteen year old girl who had given birth to a baby boy just a couple of weeks before, jumped up, grabbed…