Pastoral Questions

I guess we all put people into “boxes” – I know I do. When you think of an Englishman, born in London, in the middle years of life – what do you picture? According to my stereo-type, I do not picture a guy ready to make a radical change of ultimate life commitment. Instead I think of staid, conservative, predictable, dressed in tweed. Andrew defies my categories. By nature he is loud, fun loving, and rowdy, dare I say it – like an American!

When we met a few months ago in our International Church Fellowship, I could tell he did not feel very comfortable “in church.” But as I preached that day his eyes conveyed an intense interest. He did not join the many around him I had put to sleep! The next Sunday my colleague Andy preached and closed with a stirring challenge to think about your relationship with God. As I opened my eyes from the closing prayer I found Andrew standing in front of me – with tears in his eyes - saying, “I want to get baptized.”

“Baptized, well we are planning a baptism for Easter Sunday, let’s meet and talk.” Dayna came along for the talk, Andrew brought his significant other named Marina. At this point we were not sure just how significant. We sat down over coffee and discussed all kinds of things – from soccer (Andrew’s passion) to spirituality. In fact he was pleased to know that there is no contradiction, soccer can be spiritual, an exuberant act of God-given fun – worship on wheels. But when played from a dark heart, God can be ignored and mocked. Andrew wanted to talk about many topics, movies, music, work, even politics. In all of these areas his prime interest was in the “Christian viewpoint.” I tried to be biblical and balanced. More than an hour passed. Both he and Marina showed a keen interest and understanding in the faith. Then came the question we hesitated to raise, Dayna asked, “What about you two, are you married?’ 

They looked at each other and answered almost as one, “Not yet.” I sighed. From all that I had learned about Andrew thus far, he seemed a ready candidate for Christian baptism. What now? We learned that Marina was already baptized. Indeed she was a Bible school graduate whose testimony had sparked Andrew’s faith journey. She was so happy to have found ICF, because Andrew could not understand her Russian language church. Now things got more muddy. This Christian young lady was involved in a less than Christian living arrangement with Andrew. The light at end of the tunnel was the word “yet.” “When will you get married?” “Soon, we have started the paper work already.” It’s a rather complicated procedure for a British citizen to marry a Kazakhstani. But they were working on it. They had the blessing of one another’s parents. In fact, they asked whether I would perform their wedding ceremony. Then Andrew told me he had invited several people from his work place to witness his baptism. Easter was four days away. Andrew is a financial officer in a large oil company operating in this country. By his account, and confirmed by one of his colleagues who is an Elder in ICF, Andrew was the last guy anyone would expect to be baptized. So the disbelieving work mates were coming to watch.

It was hard to believe that two hours has passed. All four of us enjoyed this time of sharing. God was a very present fifth person in our circle. I came home very confused. Was I losing my convictions? Previously, I would have never considered baptizing someone who is “shacking up.” They needed to clean their mess, not bless it. I called the members of our ICF Leader Board, a wise and godly group. Their unanimous advice confirmed my “gut feeling.” To not baptize is to withhold the very grace that he had begun to experience. Jesus came to call “sinners” – like us – and here was one who had begun his life long pilgrimage of faith. He was actively making things right as an expression of newly emerging faith, seeking baptism, preparing for marriage, witnessing in his workplace, implementing the Lordship of Christ from the soccer field to the ledger books.