Can I Baptize Someone Without Being A Pastor?

Branson Smith asks, "Could you please discuss the ordinance of baptism? More specifically, could you discuss the church giving authority for pastors or deacons to perform the baptism. Can any Christian baptize a confessing believer?"

Mondays at 12PM CT Pastor Joel hops on YouTube to answer your questions live. This episode of Questions was taken from one of his Live Q&A. To make sure you are notified when we have our next Live Q&A - subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the bell.

#baptism #baptist #pastor
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Keywords: theology, reformed theology, preaching, sermon clip, sermon, preach, the gospel, Christianity, Christian, reformed, preaching clip

[RightResponseMinistries]

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[supamild]

All believers in Jesus Christ are qualified and called to baptize another in the mighty name of Jesus🙏

[degaichiafatma]

I baptized my husband today, and i was ledt by the holy spirit to do it, at this time, and every verse in the Bible was whispered to me by the holy spirit after doing the worship prayer.
I prepared the table to celebrate on earth, and i heard there is a celebration on heaven too.
Then the bible verse came to me, and before that i anointed him with the holy oil.

[flutterflyflowersltd]

I am being lead to baptize my young adult children who are 16 & 21. They are excited about this, we love Jesus. ❤️ i was baptized in 1999 & my life changed for the better. Amen

[theblackbull]

I was preaching the everlasting gospel on work one day and a young man heard the gospel and for months he begged me to baptized him I kept referring him to pastors and churches around the areas where we lived. But he was like nope big brother I want you to baptized me and after praying about it I baptized the young man and he was very very very happy he even made me baptized his fiance. So yeah I am an elder in the faith for the past 53 years so yeah as long as I see the witness in you that you love our LORD and savior Jesus Christ and you want to follow the apostles of Christ to part of his eternal family. Let go to the waters. Bless the Lord.

[betty]

Thank you, very well thought out answer, and great use of support, God bless you.

[kaylar]

Thank you for clarifying this. When you referred to the discussion with Jon Harris, it reminded me how much I loved those videos too. As I commented on Jon’s channel then, it would be great if the meat of that discussion could become an article, blog series, or e-book. “A Primer on How To Start a Church When There is No Faithful Church in Your Area” if you will. The title isn't very catchy (almost puritan actually), but at least it's descriptive. Your perspective as expressed in that conversation is extremely timely, and I think that there is a great thirst for someone to say what you said. To have the points you make there in text format would just make it easier to find via key word search and easier to share, save, and refer back to.

[Anna-egub]

Thank you Lord for pastor Joel and Pastor Joel thank you for all you do for the body of Christ! 🙏

[AskRemy]

A real Christian can absolutely baptize a believer

[squrpion]

Thank you for the clarity. This was really helpful.

[safuan]

This was very informative, thank you.
I was actually overseas for a bit and my friend who is not a pastor wanted to baptize a new believer there, and he even went to Egypt to baptize a new believer, I wasn't sure. I felt a bit like I didn't know what to do because I am untrained and have escaped so much error. This makes me feel much better about him doing that and I rejoice more.

[jamesstrohl]

Yes you can baptize someone without being a pastor of a Church.

[tbcreative]

I do find it interesting that we often consider the great commission is a command to ALL individual believers, but we leave out the part where baptising people is part of that command along with making disciples.

How can we take the first part of what Jesus said without taking in what he said wholesale?

[tabithamaydavis]

Yes, my experience in conservative Presbyterian groups is that only the "Teaching Elder", not Deacon or Ruling Elder, administers the sacraments (Baptism and Communion). However, and with the greatest respect, across many conservative Presbyterian groups (PCA, OPC, ARPC, etc.) Elders and men under care of Presbytery are often invited into the pulpit to preach. In my own Presbyterian congregation the Ruling Elders preach on the Sundays our pastor is away for vacation, education, etc. Though we haven't done it yet, a Deacon could also be a guest preacher.

[danbrown]

The point on the priesthood of believers is an important one, and it's why I've been somewhat uncomfortable with the WCF on this point. But consider a counterpoint: at the time of the reformation, the function of the sacraments was a major issue--the Mass in particular was the source of "manifold heresies, yea, and gross idolatries." It would have been very important to the reformers that the sacraments be administered rightly, with a right understanding and explanation of what's taking place. Given that context, restricting it to ministers makes a bit more sense.

But restricting teaching, as in, say, adult Sunday School, to elders? That isn't something I've seen before, and it certainly isn't something my strongly-WCF-based Presbyterian church practices.

[juanjulianamanriquez]

Thank you pastor, it has helped me decide whether to baptize my own newborn. I recently shifted in my baptismal distinctive from Reformed Baptist to that of Reformed Presbyterian because I believe that my daughter born from myself and my believing wife is already in a covenant before God where I am covenantally charged to instruct her in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The problem is there are no sound Presbyterian churches near me, so I've been considering baptizing her myself. And now this clarifies it!

[benjaminbird]

Any one who has obeyed the gospel of Christ, coming by way of water and Spirit is able to baptize in the name of Jesus Christ Acts 2:38 KJV.

[Chirhopher]

Yeah, Our Presby Brethren who are really Reformed and very close in Eternal Unity with Us sometimes call Us "Deep Water Presby's" lol! Even though it's not just "mode", but by Grace through "Faith".

[davidortega]

As long as your a. Believer and been baptized in Jesus name holy ghost filled

[adrianpasillas]

So....how does a Baptist church body disavow my baptism, even though it was at the behest of an ordained pastor, according to Matt. 28:19, outside the auspices of the Baptist church?