Celebration Sunday!

I had a great trip to McKinney though it was short! It's always good to spend time with my family!

I came home early in order to attend Rick McCarthy's baptism. Tracy led him to Christ in February and Rick decided to join the baptism service yesterday. Pastor Cody asked Tracy to baptize Rick. I had never thought about it much, but any believer can baptize another believer. Now that's out of the normal "church" box!

The cool thing about yesterday was that it was the Celebration service for 40 days of Community! We met outside on the soccer field where everyone set up lawn chairs. It was an awesome service. Rick and 4 others were baptized at the beginning of the service. Pastor Cody talked about being strong in your faith and not making excuses to not serve God. He asked if anyone wanted to get saved and be baptized today, like the Ethiopian Eunuch (sp?) in Acts. At first one girl, Brooke from our small group stood up, then a teenage boy, then a little boy. By the end 18 more had been baptized by their friends/family or Pastor Cody (they even let a girl baptize)! These were not all new believers but some had been baptized as babies and now wanted to partake in the biblical believer's baptism. In total 23 were baptized yesterday. It was a church service unlike any other! God was moving and people responded. It was a refreshing experience, no walls just open sky, members were involved not stagnant!

A big thanks to Cody for thinking outside the box and leading the church to think and act that way as well!