Welcoming children & celebrating parenthood
in the life of the church
Children are a blessing and wonderful gift from God, and extremely precious in His sight. Just as Jesus welcomed and blessed children who were brought to Him, we delight in welcoming them and you into the life of our church and giving thanks to God for them together. We also recognise the need for God’s help and blessing in the difficult task of parenting, so we also want to offer our prayerful support to you in this. There are 2 special services that we offer and we hope that they provide the opportunity for something that best expresses where you are on your journey of faith with your child.
A Service of Thanksgiving & Blessing for a child
This service is:
A celebration of the love of God towards the child
An act of thanksgiving and a welcome into the life of the Church
An opportunity for the parents, family, friends and the Church to thank God and celebrate the gift of a child, and to commit the child into the care and love of God.
An opportunity for family, friends, and the church to offer support and prayer for parents in the difficult task of parenthood.
A way of giving the child the freedom, in later life, to make for themselves the decision to be baptised as an adult, and as a direct result of their own faith in Jesus. Such a decision is completely in line with both the Bible and Church tradition and an increasing number of Christian families are now choosing this option over baptism.
A Service of Baptism of a child
There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about baptism, both within and outside the church. Some people think it gives a baby a better start in life, others think it’s a good opportunity for a family get together. Some think that baptism is all that is needed to make someone a Christian, or that you can’t be married or have a funeral in church without it. None of these are true. Many people have their children baptised because others in their family expect it, without really thinking through what it means to them.
While the first 4 points noted under the service of thanksgiving & blessing would also apply here it is important to note:
Infant baptism is…
A celebration of our response to the love that God first shows us in Jesus
A welcome of the child into the worshipping congregation of the Church (which is why baptism is always part of our main Sunday worship service)
An act of prayer and trust that through being part of the church the child may grow up to discover a living faith in Jesus for themselves
A time for making serious promises to bring the child up to know and follow Jesus, and to be an active part of the Christian community.
Since these promises are made before God, and we are responsible to Him for them, we do not want to ask you to make these promises unless you are sure that you are comfortable with them. If at the moment you do not regularly attend worship services at a church then it may be unlikely that you would be comfortable making these promises just yet.
However, it may be that this time of celebrating the gift of your child is a good opportunity for you to consider, or re-consider, the Christian faith and your place within the life of the church.
We warmly invite you to join with us in worship on a regular basis and in any of the activities that happen during the week.
If you would like some more information about what is involved in a Thanksgivng and Blessing or a Baptism, please contact our minister, Revd Gavin Hume, on 07800 516757 or email gavin.hume@methodist.org.uk to request an information pack.
Please be aware that Gavin’s appointments for taking services at the churches he serves and around the circuit are planned a long time in advance, so we ask for your flexibility and patience in finding a suitable date for a service to welcome your child.