Baptism and Martinis
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20
“Do you like blackcurrant martinis? I can also make mango.” Dennis stood in his kitchen with a bottle of triple sec in his hand, a martini shaker in the other, and–yes–a bottle of Vodka sitting on the counter. Honestly, the question had taken me by surprise; not because of the offer of alcohol, but because of the context in which it was asked. Dennis had just been baptized.
Would we? Could we? The unexpected merger of things I once considered sacred and secular was taking place before my eyes. What surprised me more than this head-on collision was my response that came out so naturally that it caught me off-guard.
“Yeah, we’d love some – uh – martinis. Make ‘em blackcurrant! Thanks, man.”
My Friend, Dennis
Rewind.
Last summer, was a season of change. I had changed jobs, our home was up for sale, and we were thinking about pursuing organic church life, outside the walls of what both of us were familiar. It was during this transitional time Father brought Dennis across my path.
We are both contact center engineers. Cisco phone equipment is our specialty. We are the “Thank-you-for-calling-press-one-to-speak-to-a-representative”-kind of guys.
I had known Dennis from a previous job. He is a black-and-white kind of guy, straight-to-the-point. His colorful life has taken him on many adventures. Studying music at Berkeley and rubbing shoulders with biker gangs are a few of his intriguing tales.
During my first months at this new job, my friendship with Dennis had deepened. Something I found interesting about him was his unfamiliarity with the cliches and practices found in the Christian sub-culture.
When we talked about God, I was forced to speak in everyday language, kindly avoiding phrases like “washed in the blood” and “asking Jesus into you heart.”
It was not too long before Dennis had accepted Jesus as his Savior. He had read a small Gospel of John and responded to the gospel message on page three. The words had led him to Jesus during a difficult season of his life.
Waiting for the Fruit to Ripen
As soon as he came to Jesus, my Type-A personality took over. Several times a week, I would encourage him to get baptized. “How about this weekend?” I would ask. “We can come to your place. You can come to ours.”
Whether it was my relentless salesmanship or the busyness of his life – I’m not sure – Dennis was not ready to be baptized. I was disappointed. I had been reading about organic church life, keeping things simple and getting back to the New Testament. I wanted to be like Philip, finding people along the road, getting them saved, and then baptizing them. Move over Mr. Ford and the assembly line!
Yet, despite my best efforts to cast him as the Ethiopian steward (Acts 
and immediately baptize him in the river off of Highway 494, Dennis showed me that he had a mind of his own. He would respond only when he was ready (if ever).
During these times, I would pour out my frustration to Father. I respected Dennis and valued our friendship, but I wanted to see results. I was impatient. My wife, reading me like a book, smiled and said, “You know what I think?”
“What?”
“You can probably guess what I’ll say.”
“Oh no, not the quote…” I begged.
You must understand, my wife is very proud of the following quote. A friend of hers at Bible school authored it. Ever since, it has become one of her mantras that – I admit – has great depth and wisdom.
“Remember what my friend Lindsay always says, ‘Ripe fruit yields to gentle pressure.’” Elisa let out a little smirk, proud of identifying another opportune moment to evoke the mantra.
Those words resounded in my spirit. I knew she was right. If Dennis was ever to be baptized it needed to be based on his own decision, not out of obligation or compulsion. When the fruit was ripe, it would give in. Until then, all my pressuring would be bruising fruit that was not yet ripe.
I resolved that I would no longer bring up the issue of baptism. I would wait for Dennis to ask me about it.
It was immaturity on my part, you see, to expect Dennis to respond in cookie-cutter fashion to the descriptions we read of in the Book of Acts. Living organic Christianity cannot be done like one bakes a recipe. You can’t just add flour, salt, and butter and then bake for 45 minutes.
The call to organic life is a call into relationship. It is a call to willingly walk alongside others at the pace they’re comfortable with. It values slow progress with fellowship over blazing a trail in solitary seclusion.
A Day of Celebration
Two weeks ago, nearly six months after he accepted Jesus as his Savior, Dennis brought up the idea of getting baptized. We were standing outside as he took a smoke break, bundled up in the tundra-like winter of Minnesota, when he said to me, “Ya, man, I think I’m ready to get baptized – maybe next weekend.”
He explained how some difficult issues had recently surfaced and he realized that he needed to solidify his commitment to the Lord and have a fresh start.
That following Friday, my wife and I arrived at his apartment complex, full of excitement about how God had been working in Dennis’ life. We briefly talked about the meaning of baptism, identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Dennis full excited and said, “Yah man, new life, everything’s done with, starting over! I’m ready!”
He was most certainly ready. No one had coerced him. He wasn’t doing it to earn God’s favor. He was responding in obedience because the Holy Spirit had moved on his heart. The fruit had ripened and was responding to the pressure of the Spirit. He was hearing the voice of God for himself!
We took him down to the apartment pool and baptized him. Coming up out of the water, this 49-year-old man looked like a kid again. His eyes were full of life and he said, “Woh, man, I’ve got goosebumps all over and I never get those. This never happens to me!”
Alcohol and Jesus
We dried off and went upstair to celebrate. Dennis offered us martinis and thought to myself, “What the heck? This is a great reason to celebrate!”
We drank those martinis with gladness as we prayed and talked about our life in Christ. It was natural, free-flowing, and completely organic. It was the culmination of a hands-off, Spirit-led journey about waiting on God for fruit to ripen.
There was no guilt or awkwardness about merging Jesus with alcohol. Instead of bringing Dennis into a rigid system of rules and behavioral norms, the good news of Jesus had been injected right into his living room. The message of salvation and freedom had, just as it had two thousand years ago, become incarnational. The living Word had “become flesh” and walked into a cocktail party.
This journey into organic Christianity is more exciting and unpredictable than I ever imagined. But the beauty is in the simplicity. Love one another without any strings attached and watch the Father ripen the harvestfields.
15 Responses to “Baptism and Martinis”
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This is a very cool story. It was great to read “the rest of the story” after seeing your facebook post a about this a little while back. I appreciate you sharing this.
I can relate to your “mixing alcohol and Jesus” comment. I've been apart of denominations (and some Christian friends) where if they found out that you enjoyed a beer every now and then, you would think the sky is falling; can't break those rigid legalistic rules. So good for you on enjoying a martini after Dennis made his decision to be baptized. Something we all should be able to celebrate!
What an awesome story! More Lord!
congrats matthew!
u have done your part, as the Spirit led both of you. truly the Lord guided you and Dennis to fulfill that water baptism. when we allow the Holy Spirit to move freely in our life and midst, He will truly do”His stuf.f.” keep up the good works bro, the Lord is with u all the way. more baptisms to come, more blessings and more of Him. halelujah!
Thank you for sharing this wonderful story Matthew! Oh praise God for a teachable spirit. Thanks for sharing your struggle with impatience and what God taught you as you left Dennis in His hands for the baptism. It is good for us all to remember that each person is God's project and work of art and not ours. I am rejoicing with you and so excited for what God has in store for Dennis' destiny.
It was totally awesome. We had such a great time hanging out with Dennis afterward too. It's exciting to watch him hear God's voice. Watch out world, here comes a guy (Dennis) that is going to move mountains by the power of God!
Mat, your story reminds me of an incident some years back when a couple invited my wife and I to their house to run them through an introduction to Christianity course called 'Christianity Explained'. As we sat down at the table to start, the unchurched husband said, 'Shall we crack open a bottle of red?” My mind said, “Can you do Christianity Explained over a glass of red?” To which I replied (to myself) “Why not? What better way to help him relax and enjoy the study?” And so, for the next six weeks we studied our way through Mark's Gospel over a glass of red. It was liberating for us all. He found Jesus and we found a new level of freedom.
Thanks for that great quote of your wife's. I'll pass that on to our crowd. Bless you, Phil Walters
WOW. Thank you for printing this. My wife and I had a friend over we have identified for Jesus for “homemade” beer, food and company. We have decided to be in his life and the only religious thing we did that night was say the blessing over the food. Jesus had wine and parties every day! He was making the religious leaders nuts doing this too. Relationship. Jesus came to re-establish relationship not give us more religion! Thank you for sharing and encouraging us on our journey to lead people to Christ with His direction not the religious guild book!
Great article and testimony!! It is so refreshing to read things like this, dealing with “real” people and circumstances. I have to admit that my first impression was, Oh my “what would I do”???…. and then religion reared it's ugly head for a moment and I almost didn't finish reading but I am so glad I did! The silly thing about all that is, if a glass of wine was offered I would have been all over it!!
Thank you again for your insight, heart for the Lord and your testimony!
Your sister in Christ,
Linda
Praise God. I can't think of what else to say.
That's AWESOME! I love how God is so good at moving hearts.
And… I'm a firm believer that alcohol and Jesus definitely do mix.
What a great testimony to trusting God, letting go, and letting Him work. And what a great testimony to God's faithfulness and our freedom in Christ. Thank you for sharing this.
[...] [...]
Talk about organic and full of freedom in Christ – how much more real can it get? Not even a hint of religious taboo in Dennis’ thought for celebration. You did not mention eating but I hope that you shared some finger food(s), as well as reclined, so that your fellowship was as full as it could be. If not, there is always next time . . .
)
Jesus celebrated like this continuously with His disciples, as well as with the tax collectors, and considered it such a profound form of human fellowship and community that He created in it a commemoration of His relationship in humanity – even vowing not to partake in such a manner of relationship with any beings other than humans. Oh what a wedding it will be – and we get to rehearse as often as the Spirit compels us to do so.
I was Googling for a blog that was discussing Zoe in truth and reality, I feel so blessed to have found this website tonight. My wife and I gave up religion 7 years ago, this month, and we were just talking about how this is the beginning of our Year Of Jubilee. I sincerely hope you will allow us to share It with you.
“To feel so completely guilty, given over to despair, to look into our Judge’s face and see our Savior there – Jubilee, Jubilee – Jesus is our Jubilee.” — from Michael Card’s, “The Ancient Faith” Collection.
I just couldn’t help but sing it to you!
Hi~
This was a incredible experience.
Thanks to two of the most wonderful people I know…Matthew & Elisa.
And all of your responses!
And I was Goose Bumped from head to toe.
I definitely needed a Martini & some good song provided by Matthew & Elisa–they beautiful voices.
My life has changed 180 degrees to the GREAT after that.
I asked God to provide me a worthy partner.
He said to me “Dennis I have someone for you, although you have to be the one to choose the correct one out of several—Well he provided four.
I received a email from a Terri Benson shortly after that. I ignored that, then I received another the next day. I opened it this time. It was a long lost love of mine from 1985. She was hoping that it was me & wished I would call her…I did and left MN in route to Kansas within 1 hour of speaking to her..lol
Now she has moved in with myself & there is talk of “Growing Old” together.
She had been looking for me for 15yrs–WOW!!! I guess the time was right for us to reunite. After my rebirth.
A Fairytale come true–A second chance at something we both though was lost forever.
Terri has also gone through tough times also. She will be getting Baptized also– soon.
Both of us have not laughed as much as we have now together & feel like we know what love really is now.
God Bless All Of You,
I will update as soon as things change.
Dennis
I forgot to add that God provided 4 possible partners.
It was a No Brainer–I believe—Yeah right its my choice–hahaha Lol. Thanks Jesus, God, I love You
There is NO way God was going to let me fail anymore..Since I have a strong relationship with him & talk to him everyday.
This took me a while to hear him.
Thanks to Matthew for coaching me.
More Later