Two years ago an incident broke up in our Baptist church. A devotional and highly respected Christian couple decided to join our church membership. It is a good thing to see your congregation having desire to serve the church and community further. One question popped out. They were born as Lutherans. They transferred from their former Baptist church. That church granted them membership without questioning infant baptism. But now our church had divided opinions upon approving their membership. One side argued that since the couple hold membership from the former baptist church, why can’t we make exception either? The other insisted “believer’s baptism� excluding infant. Our church eventually rejected their application because they refused to be baptized once again. The couple left sadly. In a chance they moved to other state shortly after the event. Months later their friends in our church left, too. For years we desperately visited the friends, asking them to return to the church. It didn’t work. Later one of the friends wrote to me saying that she left because she can’t bear our “phony church culture,� which might allow other baptisms except infant. She thinks it is double standard. She’s never come back our church since then. She was a new believer at the time. In an occasion I urged her to join other church in town. She replied that she is afraid of joining any church anymore, because she doesn’t want to get hurt in a church again.
As pastor we do have obligation to find the lost. But can we practically put aside the different views of theology? Although denomination is precious in many ways, I could only pray that I won’t have similar problem in the future in any denominational church.
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