People in the water being baptized serves as a highlight & significant spiritual marker in the life of an individual & a church. Recently, I polled a few of our highest baptizing church plants in Louisiana & found that they have 5 intentional practices that every church can do to increase baptisms:

1. Pray & Share the Gospel.

   If you don’t have anybody to baptize, you need to ask the question, “Are we communicating the gospel clearly to our community?” It may be that you are in a hard soil area & cultivation will take time. That’s fine. But the promise of the word of God is to produce results (Isaiah 55:11). God’s working in all our communities to bring people to himself (1 Corinthians 5:19-21). As we pray & share, planting seeds in our communities, eventually we can expect a harvest (Psalm 126:6).  If you need some ideas, see my post Proven Ways to Cultivate Relationships & Plant Seeds in Your Community.

2. Keep a current list of potential candidates.

   Write down the names of people in your fellowship that you’re not sure of their relation to Christ &/or if they’ve followed the Lord through believer’s baptism. Share it with core leaders & ask them to pray. Plan on systematically talking with them about making this important step in their faith journey. Also, teach parents how to look for signs of God’s work in the lives of their children & when they begin to respond, put them on the list & begin to pray for them. (Check out this helpful article on How to Tell If Your Child is Ready for Baptism).

3. Put it on the church calendar.

   As you do calendar planning, go ahead & put at least two dates for baptisms on the calendar. Announce these regularly. Expect to have candidates. Pray & share the Gospel. Work the list.

4. Get info out about Believer’s Baptism.

   Teach on it regularly. Produce a brochure & keep it in a well trafficked area in your building & on your website. I’ve also heard of churches doing brief Informational meetings about baptism before & after church. Don’t assume people realize the importance & Biblical reasons for baptism.  Here’s the brochure our church utilizes.

5. Make it a celebration.

   Baptism is an opportunity to celebrate God’s work in the heart of human being. Jesus died so that work could be done! A person has left the kingdom of darkness & entered the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13)! Even the angels in heaven throw a party when this happens (Luke 15:10)!. Let’s celebrate! Make it a big deal. Send out invitations, post pics, share videos! We throw parties for much less, so a thing that makes heaven party & busts people out of the kingdom of darkness should instigate a celebration!

An evangelistic culture must be cultivated & maintained with intentionality. We have a command from Jesus to go & baptize (Matthew 28:18-20). We have so many people without a relationship with Christ. Get intentional about moving people to understand & respond to the Gospel & celebrate it through baptism.