Elevation Church Holds 'Super' Sunday Baptisms

Most of North America was thinking about nachos, commercials and the football game between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks in New Jersey on Super Bowl Sunday.

But in the cafeteria of Wyoming Junior High School in Wyoming, Mich., something "super" was also happening on Sunday, Feb. 2 as eight people were baptized and welcomed into the community at Elevation Church, says Christopher Hall, the preaching and teaching pastor of the new congregation.

“We're so happy to welcome our brothers and sisters in Christ into our church family and look forward to living life together, walking in God's Word. What a great God we have!” Hall writes in a blog describing the baptisms.

Elevation Church, which held its first preview service last June, is part of the Christian Reformed Church/Reformed Church in America Church Multiplication Initiative, a program that is looking to plant churches all over North America.

Elevation is a member of the RCA.

Hall says that it was an important day because these were the first baptisms at Elevation Church. The adults were baptized by immersion, and the children baptized by having water placed on their foreheads.

Baptism is a sacrament, Hall writes, that “signifies entrance both into the wider church and into the community of a particular congregation. Baptism signifies and seals God's covenant of grace with us and our children—demonstrating that we are saved for eternity through his love. Baptism says 'you belong here'."

Hall and his wife, Jenni, and their three children live in Wyoming, a large suburb adjacent to Grand Rapids.

Writing about the baptism and what it meant to him, Hall says: “Being part of Jesus breathing new life into these people whom he loves and whom we care for so much is one of the highlights of my life. New Jersey had a football game but the real party was in the City of Wyoming. And there was a party that was super!”