I have been in full time ministry work for almost 25 years! I have been part of a lot of baptisms. If I am being honest, being in the ministry and church world, you can forget how significant baptism is in the scripture. Let me give you an idea in the spiritual realm of how powerful it is. I have seen parents here in America from other faith beliefs allow their children to attend things like Powerhouse or Christian after school clubs. But the moment that child comes home and says I want to get baptized, you could say, “All hell breaks loose”. Not always, but mostly it can be usually at that point the parent intervenes and says “No way”! Even non-believers know the rubber meets the road when a person wants to profess their faith to get baptized. In the persecuted church world, a person is literally risking life unto potential death if they are caught getting baptized! I think for myself in the last 10 years of GRDC history, we realize how hard the ground can be for those who may have been affected by poverty and religion. There are times in our ministry history where we were having Bible study in a drug house. No exaggeration, the drug lord had favor with us and although he couldn’t escape his bondage he hoped something could happen by allowing us Bible study. That said, although a bold move for the Gospel, didn’t yield anyone coming to the Lord marked by baptism with a fully transformed life.
I have worked with guys who have come off the streets or who have been in gangs who favor GRDC and Jesus, but certainly aren’t going to get baptized marking a fully devoted life to Jesus! These are a few examples of many hard fought battles for people’s lives caught in the trenches of heaven and hell. There were many times for years we kept our hand to the plow and weren’t seeing a lot of transformation. Although we may not get to see the earthly fruit, we know the love poured out will have its place as seeds into many lives. But we also learned a lot about what we were doing and how we could continually adjust our impacts to reach people deeper for Jesus resulting in transformation!
Maybe that is why In our 10 years of GRDC history, there is something special for us as we celebrate 8 baptisms this year that occurred on February 10th! Those who were baptized represent years of relationship investment! These relationships will be the future of the Kingdom in Grand Rapids! See video HERE if you haven’t already seen on your socials.
