helping teens take the step of baptism

Here at the end of 2011 we have had the chance to look back and reflect on all the teens teens who chose to take the step of baptism. Our team is kind of in party mode because we had more kids make this step of faith than ever before. God did something special this past year but I also know that we changed our approach with how we handled baptism in our ministry. When it comes to baptism you need a plan and you need prayer! You need a plan because you will never hit a target you are not aiming for. It's a matter of prayer because baptism is a result of a new life flowing from salvation...that's really God's work! Here are a few of the things we did intentionally to help teens process the idea of baptism...

• We talked about baptism more. // when we talked about baptism more it gave us more chances to explain baptism. What is talked about becomes important in our ministry culture.
• We linked our schedule with the church's schedule. // every time our church has a baptism service scheduled at one of our locations we had a reason to push baptism in our student ministry. Students would hear about it on Sundays and Wednesdays and parents would know about it also.
• We encouraged small group leaders to talk about it and pray for it. // again this seems like a no-brainier but life is fast and small group leaders need to be reminded to find out who in their group they need to be praying for and asking about baptism.
• We allowed small group leaders to baptize their students. // there is an energy happens when small groups get to celebrate baptism together.