Baptism
We offer baptism to adults and teens who wish to take this important step in their faith journey. Baptism is a spiritual milestone and also part of the journey to becoming a steward of New Community Church.
The immersion of a person into water symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is an act of obedience (Matthew 28:18-20), but not a prerequisite for salvation (beginning a new life with Jesus that exists into eternity—Ephesians 2:8-9). Baptism is a voluntary act of identifying with Jesus and publicly declaring a decision to follow him. It should be done in a community of believers—the local church—to identify with that community both as a place of growth and as a place of service in the ministry of the church.
Because the symbolism of baptism requires a certain level of cognitive and developmental readiness, conversations with children about their own baptism at NCC generally begin as they approach middle school.
For younger children, NCC encourages parents to consider presenting their children for the ceremony of dedication, whereby God’s blessing is formally invoked upon the children, the parents publicly commit themselves to raise the children in accordance with the teachings of Scripture, and the community agrees to support the parents and the children in this decision.
For more information on our beliefs, read our Statement of Faith.
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits - to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolized baptism that now saves you also - not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience towards God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand - with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to him.”