Baptisms in the Sea

In the FIEC office, we get the blessing of hearing about men and women becoming Christians all the time across the country. These stories are not as rare as you might think, and they are always encouraging.

Each one is a reminder that the gospel is still going out to the world, that people are hearing the good news about Jesus and responding in faith, and that churches are growing: the Lord is adding to their number.

Here is one example from this summer which not only demonstrates the number of people turning to Christ but also the opportunity that gospel unity with other churches offers to display the gospel to the world.

The leaders of Lansdowne Church (FIEC) meet regularly with a group of other gospel churches to pray together: Bournemouth Community Church, Catch the Fire, Love Church, and Coastline Vineyard: the Bournemouth Church Collective.

In a wonderful demonstration of their unity in the gospel of Christ, they decided that Landsdowne’s annual summer beach baptism event this year should become a joint baptism service between the five churches.

So, on a Sunday morning in July, more than 1,300 people gathered on the Bournemouth beach for a “festival of Christian faith” and 92 people stepped into the water to be baptised in the sea.

A website and promo video was created to spread the word as the churches worked together to make the service happen. There was sung worship, testimonies were shared, there was prayer, the gospel was preached and a response called for, and tents were set up for people to be prayed for or to ask questions about Christianity.

During the morning, 92 people entered the sea to be baptised as the waves lapped into the coast.

The sun was shining through the morning so the hundreds in attendance stayed afterwards for a picnic and to get to know each other more on a great day of celebration.

Peter Baker, Senior Minister of Lansdowne, reflected on the event:

“It was great to see people from different church cultures come together in this way. There are many expressions of church, but there is really only one church, one faith, one Lord and one baptism.”

Baptism serves as a display of the gospel: a picture of the old life that has gone and the new life that has come, being raised out of the water as Christ was raised from death (Romans 6:4, Colossians 2:12).

Such a public baptism event was a fantastic opportunity to show this joyful representation of the gospel to the watching world: those from the churches, friends and family who were invited, or passers by who stopped to listen in to what was happening.

Peter said:

There is something to learn here about re-inventing "public evangelism" and faith being seen and heard in the public space.

Hold something on a beach or in a public space and you will attract the passing public. It helped that we had such a large crowd to begin with: a crowd attracts a crowd!

A big part of baptism services is hearing the stories of how those being baptised found answers to their questions, put their trust in Jesus, and moved from death to life. There were three testimonies shared during the service, but also dozens shared on the website – take some time to read and listen to them, they are great!

Such was the spectacle, the story of the baptisms made it to the local news, featuring in the Bournemouth Echo and BBC South.

There seems to be a growing interest in Christianity in our culture, described by some as “a quiet revival”. Bournemouth is one of those towns in the UK where many churches are experiencing significant growth, especially from among the Gen Z and Gen Alpha demographics.

Peter reflected:

We have been aware of a growing interest among younger adults, stories of people just turning up at church or seeking Christ as a result of some digital media.

Does this amount to "revival"? No. But there is something happening out there and churches that have learned already to relate to the culture while being distinctive from it, are reaping a harvest.

Let's keep praying for God to work in this country in ways we haven’t been expecting, and let's give him all the praise as we see men and women putting their faith in Christ and receiving eternal life.