It was an exciting time in my life. I was 20 years old and working long hours at Applebees as a closing server in the smoking section. I sold a lot of alcohol and had many opportunities to share Jesus with my co-workers.

Part of the problem is that the institutional church, from at least the days of Constantine, used baptism as a sacrament that empowered the church and its leadership over the people.

Source: Cole-Slaw by Neil Cole
I think we are guilty of protecting new believers from depending on God. If we were to follow Christ’s example and deploy new believers immediately in ministry, we would see how quickly they are forced to pray, trust in God, listen to the Holy Spirit, and find answers. This would solidify [...]

I want to raise awareness of the weird, almost schizophrenic policies we have made in the church. Whether it is separating a spiritual family into voting “members” and silent “nonmembers” or telling Christians to fulfill the Great Commission by disobeying it, false and artificial divisions have caused some strange practices to be established.

It did not really take the enemy long to attack the simple practice of baptism and knock Jesus’ direction for it off course. Before the close of the first century the church had already parted ways from the New Testament pattern in several ways.