Online Baptism

I read about it, and said, "Huh?"

I emailed the guy in charge, and said, "What?"

Now I've seen it for myself, and I'm saying "Whoa." Here it is: the Flamingo Road Church "Internet Campus" website, conducting its first ("the" first?) online baptism. If you want to watch it, check out the link:

http://www.frclive.blogspot.com/

A first response for me is: How cool! They've figured out how to use the human-made tool of commuication, the internet, to encourage folks to be baptized. They have used the medium of cyberspace to reach across time and space to conduct one of the most powerful and foundational rituals in the life of a Christian. Awesome! I say, Praise the Lord that Alyssa is baptized and has committed her life to Christ! She has answered the call of the Spirit, and that is always a wondrous thing.

My second response is: how strange! Pastor Brian, as he "led" the baptism of Alyssa over the gap of cyberspace, required someone else to "be his hands" for this ritual. Lisa, a believer and relative to Alyssa, followed his instructions by lowering Alyssa into the bath tub after Brian declared the trinitarian formula (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) from afar. Lisa did the baptism, but she was Brian's hands for the event. Why couldn't Lisa have done the baptism herself? Why were Brian and the other pastor on the other end of the internet link necessary?

I could only speculate on why Lisa felt like she needed Brian to lead the baptism. But on the surface it looks like Brian has some sort of authority to baptize. Perhaps he has been ordained as a pastor of Flamingo Road Church, to lead this on-the-edge ministry through the internet. And I think this idea of ordination (calling individuals to use their gifts in certain roles in the Church) is good. Brian ought to be doing the work he is doing.

Yet, if Brian has been ordained to a ministry of online baptism by a community of faith (Flamingo Road Church), where does this community of faith connect with Alyssa? I did not hear any words about how Alyssa has committed herself to living within the body of Christ, in relationship with other believers. I did not hear Brian challenge her to get involved in a local congregation, to worship the Lord with her brothers and sisters. The baptism is presented as an isolated incident in Alyssa's life. In one sense this is quite fitting, for the internet is a place where we can connect with other people without sacrificing our anonymity. We need not draw close to a community that can hold us accountable or walk with us on the journey; we can have the baptism without the connections. And to my generation, this may be the way we like it best.

But is it the way that the Spirit wants it? Does she want us to get dunked, feel good (as Alyssa rightfully does), and go on living our own lives? Or (as maybe you suspect by now that I think) does the Spirit want us to be baptized into a community of people who, being baptized like us, also commit to loving us and holding us accountable to our discipleship?

I come from a tradition and reading of scripture in which baptism is very important, and in which the community function of the Church is just as important. So the Flamingo Road Church online baptism phenomenon makes me both excited and concerned. I see that the Church has discovered how to reach through cyberspace with the call to follow Jesus. I also wonder if the Church has discover how to reach through cyberspace with the call to be gathered in the name of Jesus.

~emrys