Catching Up - Faith Commitments

One of the greatest things about living in Sumter is the church we've gotten involved in. It's called Christ Community Church, and is a growing non-denominational church here in town. It's very similar to the church that we loved in Phoenix and several of our AF friends attend, so we immediately felt like home when we started going in April. The music is great, they have solid preaching, a quality children's ministry, and some wonderful programs that we've gotten plugged into including a couple's Bible study and a mom's ministry. I'd say that a large majority of the church is made up of younger people, but there are some older folks as well. Our Bible study is mostly made up of couples who have high school and college-aged kids, so they have been great mentors to us as we're just starting out as parents. The mom's ministry is also wonderful. There are many older moms who have decided to start meeting with and encouraging younger moms as we all grow through Bible study and prayer. We so appreciate the wisdom they share!

Because we love this church so much, we felt comfortable taking a few big faith steps this year. First, we actually took their membership class and decided to become members while we're here. Second, we finally participated in a baby dedication and publicly committed to raising Kaden to know Christ. Our pastor, Mark, enjoyed getting to know Kaden as we prepared for the dedication and made sure everyone in the audience knew he is ALL BOY. (As if that wasn't obvious by the way he was squirming and jumping around on the stage the whole time.) After Mark introduced us, he had us share some scripture that summarizes our prayer for Kaden as he grows. Then we went down into the audience and several of our close friends came up and surrounded us and prayed over us, which was very special. Here are some photos and some of the information we read out to the church on that day.

We chose the name Kaden Michael Wentzel because Kaden means "fighter", and Micahel is for the archangel Michael, who is the leader of God's armies. Our prayer when he was born, and as we dedicate him, is that he will grow up to become a strong spiritual warrior.

 James read this scripture for Kaden: "I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart..." Jeremiah 1:5 (NLT)

We hung this verse in a frame inside Kaden's nursery. We love this short excerpt because it illustrates that God created Kaden and knows him completely, and that he has set our child apart. But we also love it within the greater context of the passage (Jer. 1:4-10) because God calls a young person to do big things, and tells him not to worry about his youth or inexperience because God will send him, protect him, and teach him what to say. Our prayer is that Kade would come to know God that intimately, answer His calling and be obedient in following whatever path God lays before him.

At the beginning of November, James and I decided to finally get baptized by immersion. Because we both grew up in Presbyterian churches, we were sprinkled as infants. But as we've studied the Bible and participated in other churches, we've realized that it is important for every believer to make the decision on their own to accept Christ as their savior, and get baptized as a public declaration of that faith. The church leadership encouraged us to do this, and appreciated how difficult and awkward it might be doing this late in the journey as mature believers. But we are excited to now say that we've checked those boxes!

The church recorded a wonderful video of the baptism service, which I'll post below. (We were the last 2 of 5 people baptized, if you want to skip ahead. They had us come in a few days prior to the service and interviewed us about how we came to faith and why we've decided to get baptized. Then we both got dunked!) I thought it was really special that Mark invited James to stay in the water and be there while I was baptized, as a sign of his spiritual leadership in our family. We also joked with Pastor Mark about how I'm pregnant and, although the church does not believe in infant baptism, we're sort of taking care of 2.5 members of our family here. ;^)