Originally published in Crosswalk
More than 7 000 people were baptised last Saturday in the waters off Huntington Beach, California, in what organisers called the largest single-day baptism event in American history — and a milestone leading up to an even larger gathering planned for June.
It was the second year in a row for the “Baptize California” gathering, which saw 6 000 baptised along Huntington Beach last year but a record 7 750 this year.
The all-day event stretched until the evening, with men and women, young and old alike, lining up to publicly declare their faith in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean as well as in portable baptistries. Bethel Music and the husband-and-wife team of Cody Carnes and Kari Jobe were among the featured singers.
Some 30 000 people were in attendance.
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“You were part of the largest water baptism in American history,” pastor Mark Francey of Oceans Church, which hosted the campaign, told the crowd. “Who thinks that God could do it in the other states of America?”
The first person baptised on Saturday was a 71-year-old woman, Joanne, who told organisers she had considered baptism for 40 years but kept procrastinating.
“We now baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” Francey said as the woman entered the ocean. “We pray that you would rise up out of these waters with a new nature and a new life.”
Francey is one of the pastors behind June 8’s Baptize America, in which thousands of US churches nationwide are expected to participate in what is being called the “largest synchronized baptism in history.” June 8 is Pentecost Sunday.
“We’re going to flood local churches in every single one of our states, and we’re going to see a mass water baptism across our land,” Francey said.
Organisers say Baptize America will unite local churches “under a part of theology we can all agree on, which is the public profession of faith through water baptism”.
“This is not about any single church. It’s about churches across the nation united, pursuing the fulfillment of the Great Commission,” Baptize America says on its website, Baptize.org.
On June 8, “our nation and the nations of the earth will bear witness that God is not done with America. It will be saved”, the website says.
“If God can do it in California, He can do it in any state,” it says. “And if He can do it in America, He can do it in any other nation in the world. Join the movement today.”
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