Baptism Question

proudparent2b

So I know it's still a little early to be thinking too much about baptisms yet, but DH and I just found out that our pastor is leaving shortly after EDD and we could be stuck with either no minister or an interim one for up to two years.

I'm trying to decide whether we should have the baptism done ASAP after LO is born so we can have the current pastor do it. If not, do we ask the interim or wait until a new pastor is chosen?

My initial thought is just to wait so that LO can grow up knowing the pastor that baptised him, but I'm pretty sure that it's not a common practice to wait nearly that long.

Any thoughts?

MsIan

I think it's whatever you're comfortable with. My church is HUGE, so it's not like my LO is going to develop much of a personal relationship with him anyways. How large is your church??

proudparent2b

Not very- I'd say 300-500 members.

zekesmommy611

DS was baptized at 4 weeks. This LO will be about the same. 
Personally I'd have the current pastor baptized your LO. 
Our church/family has the tradition of baptizing infants. As the children grow they have the opportunity to go to Sunday school and in their teens confirmation. During this time children will develop a relationship with the pastor and God. 

dshannah

Depending on your denomination (and your pastor's willingness/ability), you may be able to invite the old pastor back to the Church to baptize baby as a visitor (in much the same way that a guest can officiate at a wedding in some denominations).  

You'd have to make the case that it's because he knows you so well and because he's been so helpful to your marriage and pregnancy (because otherwise you'd offend the interim pastor), but if your church allows it, there's no reason you should be stuck with someone you don't know!

hellogoodbye2

MsIan said:

I think it's whatever you're comfortable with. My church is HUGE, so it's not like my LO is going to develop much of a personal relationship with him anyways. How large is your church??

This is us too. We baptized our DD around 4 months.

emma+karen

dshannah said:

Depending on your denomination (and your pastor's willingness/ability), you may be able to invite the old pastor back to the Church to baptize baby as a visitor (in much the same way that a guest can officiate at a wedding in some denominations).  

You'd have to make the case that it's because he knows you so well and because he's been so helpful to your marriage and pregnancy (because otherwise you'd offend the interim pastor), but if your church allows it, there's no reason you should be stuck with someone you don't know!

Yeah, this.  I was baptized Catholic (though I'm now a Methodist) and my great-uncle who was a priest performed the baptism, but at my local parish, as a guest.  It does depend on the denomination, and sometimes the individual church/pastor, but it is worth considering!

laurenmdrn16

I do caution you that if you are part of the UCC, your old pastor cannot come back to your current parish. You would have to go to your previous pastor's current parish. We ran into this when our pastor left at the end of January. I asked if he would be able to come back to baptize our daughter and unfortunately he cannot and since he retired he would no longer be performing baptisms. We had a service where we released him of his pastoral duties and as a result he is no longer considered our pastor, but can attend events as a friend if we choose.

We are also looking at either having our interim pastor perform the baptism or waiting up to a year until we have a new permanent pastor. I am torn because I am on the pastoral search committee and while I LOVE our current interim, I don't know if I will meet a candidate tomorrow that will be Luna's pastor for her entire faith formation that I would rather perform the baptism. I talked with MH about this (he just had a Deacon's meeting last night with Rev. Estelle) and he really likes our interim a lot and would love for her to baptize Luna this summer.

It is something to pray on, but if you have a very close relationship with your current pastor who was there for you through your own faith formation, I would recommend talking to your pastor. Personally, I was baptized by a different pastor than confirmed me and it was actually kind of nice to see the different styles, especially as I changed and grew in my journey of faith. My pastor when I was very young was very traditional while the pastor who confirmed me was younger, more progressive, and it fit how I saw Christ at that time in my life. Maybe that may be the same for your LO, so it wouldn't be a bad thing if you had your current pastor perform the baptism knowing that he/she will not be your child's pastor for life.

proudparent2b

dshannah said:

Depending on your denomination (and your pastor's willingness/ability), you may be able to invite the old pastor back to the Church to baptize baby as a visitor (in much the same way that a guest can officiate at a wedding in some denominations).  

You'd have to make the case that it's because he knows you so well and because he's been so helpful to your marriage and pregnancy (because otherwise you'd offend the interim pastor), but if your church allows it, there's no reason you should be stuck with someone you don't know!

I've heard of this being done on rare occasions for weddings, where a former pastor can return after so many years to serve as a secondary pastor for the service, but there's a lot of red tape.

@zekesmommy611 - The pastor will still be there until LO is 4 weeks old, so we could do it then.

sillyfox

We had DD baptized at 4 months. Planning on doing it around the same age again. I was weird about germs and didn't take her out much that first month or two. I took her to church a couple of times but had her in a carrier so nobody would ask to hold her ...

Knottie64278661

sillyfox, I feel the same way. We plan to baptize LO around 4 months old partly due to the fact that Godmother will be out of the country for the Summer but also because I want to minimize the amount of contact baby has with others in the beginning. I have a huge Catholic family and having the baptism too soon means so many people holding her and passing germs. When I told my mom we were waiting a few months to baptize her she sounded like this was very scary and odd to not do it right away. I explained to her my reasons and that many families we know have been postponing baptisms a few months just due to having multiple kids and being so busy!