Buried and Raised to a Newness of Life in Christ
For the last five years, I have had the amazing privilege of making the videos shown at Summit. My favorite part of this process is having the chance to talk with people from all of the different Summit sites who I may have never had the chance to meet, and getting to know a bit about them and their story. One of the best times of the year for me at Summit (besides Christmas and Easter, of course) is the weeks leading up to Beach Baptism. I have the opportunity to look through the registration forms of people who have prayerfully decided to get baptized, and it’s always super encouraging to remind myself how God is working through the people who attend this place. Jeff was one of those people who was willing to share a bit of his story for the baptism celebration video, which we show the week after the baptism event. He was also willing to meet up again a few months later to talk about his experience leading up to baptism for a testimonial video.
Jeff was a delight to talk with about his baptism experience. We talked about a range of topics spanning from how he decided to trust Jesus for his salvation to where he is at now, with baptism being the prominent theme. There are several questions I typically ask for the baptism testimonial videos, but there’s a question I like to ask that is based off of Romans 6:4. "What do you think it means to be buried and raised to a newness of life in Christ?" Jeff simply answered this question by saying, “we are raised as new individuals in the likeness of God.”
“We are raised as new individuals in the likeness of God.”
I’ve heard a lot of great answers to this question over the years from several people, but I appreciate Jeff’s answer-- being raised as individuals in the likeness of God. I think of this as an encouragement to continue to strive to look more and live more like Jesus every day, even when I fall short. I often remember my own decision to get baptized almost ten years ago at the beach, after onlyattending Summit for a few months. That public declaration in committing my life to Christ still charges me to this day to keep moving forward with Jesus.
Baptism is a big deal, and because it’s a big deal it should be celebrated in a big way. I’m looking forward to seeing how God has been moving through people toward this decision of getting baptized this October, and I’m really thankful for people like Jeff who are willing to share their story in a video and proclaim their faith to others who need to hear it.
This fall's Beach Baptism takes places on October 11th at 2:30 p.m. We hope you'll join us at Bethune Beach to sing worship, hear a sermon, and celebrate all that God has done in the lives of those being baptized. To register to get baptized on October 11th, please click here.
Brian Hogan is the Media Coordinator at Summit Church, working alongside several ministries within the church in regard to media implementation. To reach out to Brian with any questions or to say "hey man, those videos you work on are amazing", you can email Brian at bhogan@summitconnect.org.