Do you have questions about the meaning of some of the terms and teachings of The United Methodist Church? In this series, we ask clergy to share their understanding of topics. No preaching, just conversation.
In this episode we discuss what The United Methodist Church has to say about baptism with the Rev. Felicia Hopkins, pastor of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Abilene, Texas.
Transcript:
The Rev. Felicia Hopkins, St. Paul Abilene United Methodist Church: “Baptism is a holy sacrament in The United Methodist Church. For us, it is a time of holiness. We understand that salvation is different from baptism. As United Methodists, we believe that when you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior in your heart and you confess your sins, then you are saved. That’s it. The Bible is very clear about that. There’s a great story in Acts 16 where the jailer says, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ And they say that, ‘You just need to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord.’ But we encourage you to become baptized because baptism is an outward sign of an inward change. It says, ‘Yes, I am taking a new journey.’ It says in the Bible, that when you are baptized, you are putting on Christ. That you have become a new creature. And you’re not just doing it for yourself but you’re sharing it in the community. And you are saying, ‘This is like my new birthday!’ And so, we encourage individuals to be baptized. We encourage families to come and to celebrate this in the community because it really, really is about a new start.”
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This video was produced by United Methodist Communications in Nashville, TN.
Media contact is Joe Iovino.
This video was first posted on November 14, 2017.
