Becoming a parent is one of the most profoundly important events in the life of any human being. It’s also one of the most important events in the life of the Church. Christians have always recognized the immense value of God’s gift of life, and of the great responsibility that all parents have to love, protect, and provide for their children.
For Christian parents, this responsibility is shared to a large extent with their family in Christ, their local church. Children raised in a Christian family committed to a local church are given the best possible preparation for a truly good and satisfying adult life.
Through continual exposure to Christian teaching and action, children are provided with a deep and comprehensive introduction to the way of Christ. In such an environment they are able to learn and understand the basic claims of Christianity, and to see how acceptance of the truth of those claims affects the choices we make about how to act toward God and others.
Some branches of the Christian Church have taken the position that to establish an infant as a member of the body of Christ, that child must undergo the sacrament of baptism. Historically, this view has grown out of a concern that an un-baptized child has not received the grace given to human beings through the sacrificial death of Jesus, and so is not saved from their sin. In our judgment, this view is mistaken.
The Scriptures indicate that God recognizes as sin only actions that are deliberately disobedient (for, as Paul says in a somewhat different context, “where there is no law there is no transgression” [Romans 4:13]). But infants have very little capacity for conscious choice, and it will take several years of mental and emotional development before a child is able to act with anything like true moral freedom. God does not hold a young child responsible for acts of childish rebellion. Indeed, Jesus holds up the innocent faith of little children as an example for his adult followers to imitate (see for instance Matthew 18:2-4). At Indy Metro Church, we provide the opportunity for parents to introduce their children into the community of Christ through a ceremony of dedication.
In this ceremony we publicly dedicate our children to the Lord, promising before a crowd of loving witnesses to raise them according to the teachings of Christ and his Church, and to do everything in our power to promote their physical, mental, and emotional flourishing, in the hope that, when they have grown, they will eventually make their own free decision to be baptized as a follower of Christ.
