Baptized, Again!
By Cathy Woods
Cathy is the Director of Volunteer Services for Pike's Peak Hospice and a member of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.

Having joined the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) at age 30, I was aware of some traditions I had not had the chance to experience. My husband is a minister ordained in our denomination, and a third generation Disciple. He has often shared stories about the traditions that meant so much to him as he grew in his own faith journey.

Being an enthusiastic new Disciple, I was honored to be asked to teach a 6th grade Sunday school class. Obviously, I had no idea what I was getting into. I enlisted the aid of our minister in case I couldn't answer the theological stuff.

As the year progressed, things went well until we got to a discussion about the Book of Revelation. It was a very untraditional discussion, and we asked the minister to come armed with his concordance, so that he could field the hard questions. The class had a lot of interesting discussions/arguments about heaven and hell, good and bad, right and wrong. The minister and I did the best we could to answer things without dampening spirits. It must have been okay, because when the time came to take the pastor's class for baptism, they all signed up.

At this point, I was finished teaching for the year and prepared to take my leave. As so often happens with children, they were going to hold me accountable for something I had talked about in the last class. Being born a Methodist, I was sprinkled at birth and therefore deprived the opportunity of baptism by immersion. The kids asked why I wasn't taking the pastor's class with them.

I prayed about this, and consulted several people I respected. Because the Disciples of Christ tradition recognizes other baptisms, we need not be baptized twice. I felt that my first was baptism was a dedication and a mere sprinkling. I came to the conclusion that for me, it would be okay to take the class and then see how I felt about the possibility of getting baptized again.

I think the minister was glad to have me in class. I was the only one who did all my homework and quickly was labeled the "teacher's pet." Some of the kids saw my participation as a challenge, and it worked out well for all.

During those weeks, I became very close with the kids I had been teaching. Learning about the history of our denomination along with them was an enriching experience. By the end of the class, I indeed had decided to be baptized along with all those twelve year olds. It was scary. In order to be immersed, I had to take my glasses off, and they had threatened to trip me! That would have made a big splash, but it never happened. We were all so overcome with the emotion of the moment that there was a reverence in the situation not common for their age. And I realized that it was I who had received, was reaping the spiritual benefits of this experience.

As I look back on that time, I realize how important the traditions of our church and family are. I, in turn, have imparted those to my children. My parents are both gone now, and it is very important that I carry the same rituals forward for the next generation on our horizon.

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