At St John’s, we are always excited to welcome children into the church.

Children are a precious gift from God, and the responsibility of being a mum or dad is a massive one! As followers of Jesus, we believe the most important thing we can do for our children is to help them have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

At St John’s, we want to help you with what it means to raise your child as someone who knows and follows God. We have two different church services for parents who want to pray for their infant child and have the support of our church in raising their child.

The first church service is a Thanksgiving Service. In the Thanksgiving Service, you have the opportunity to publicly name your child and seek God’s blessing as parents. You do not make the same promises that are made in the Infant Baptism Service and not water is used. It is an opportunity to gather with family and friends and start thinking about what it means to raise your child as a Christian.

The second service is a Baptism Service. In a baptism, the parents are followers of Jesus and make promises as Christians on behalf of their child. The child is baptised by sprinkling water on their head. At our church, we don’t often ask adults to make public statements of their trust in Jesus, but due to the significance of the promises being made, this is one of them.

At St John’s we love to baptise the infants of parents who follow and trust Jesus and who plan to raise their children as believers in Jesus. Normally this would mean praying for their children, talking with them about God, and bringing them to church or youth group so they can learn age-appropriate Bible stories. However, considering the significance of the promises being made, it doesn’t make any sense for us to baptise children of parents who don’t plan on doing these things.

So who can get baptised?

As you can see, the promises confirm you are a believer, a follower of Christ, and a member of his church, believing in his promises found in his word, the Bible. They also confirm that from this, you intend to raise your child as one who believes these same promises. You intend to raise them as Christians who hold to the truth of Jesus, found in Scripture. You also promise to live a life that rejects what the Bible calls sin and give your life over to God in every way.

Baptism is not only a sign of what God has done for us individually, but it is a sign of commitment to the body of believers, what the Bible calls the church. Therefore, baptism requires that the family presenting the child already be a part of the church. Baptism is about welcoming the child into the body of believers, where they will be raised in the faith and nurtured as followers of Jesus.

If parents are not active members of our church, it would not make sense for us to baptise their child. Membership in the church is a key expression of the faith that baptism symbolises, and it is within this community that children will be taught about Jesus and what it means to live as his disciples. It is where God’s grace upon the children is celebrated and in partnership with parents nurtured in the community of God

A key aspect of baptism is being with God’s people in celebration of Christ’s grace upon us all. With that in mind, at St John’s, we are only baptising members of our church community—those who have shown a desire to be among God’s people and serve and love him with all their lives.

We really hope this describes you! Or, at least you might be curious as to what being part of St John’s is like! If so, you are welcome to join us on any Sunday to experience what this community is like and why being a part of God’s kingdom is a wonderful experience for you and your child.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or comments, or if you would like to meet to discuss this further.