“…baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)
From the earliest chapter of the Church, baptism has served as a public act and an embedded expression of our faith in Jesus, and it marks us in our new identity as a child of God. In the Charis Fellowship, we can trace our ancestral roots back to a commitment to follow biblical convictions on the practice of baptism.
The early Brethren’s conviction and commitment to baptism was a major part of what led them to band together and eventually flee persecution in Germany. Infant baptism was prevalent at the time, largely because of the close association of church and state. But the Brethren felt that baptism should be reserved for those who have voluntarily placed their faith in Jesus and are publicly professing that and willfully submitting to His authority.
There was much political dissent over the Brethren “re-baptizing” people, and many early Brethren were persecuted, jailed, or killed for their firm belief in believer’s baptism. In 1708 a small group of individuals gathered and were baptized in the Eider River in Schwarzenau, Germany, marking the formal beginning of the Brethren movement in American, out of which came the Charis Fellowship. Eventually this group and their wide-spread associates fled Germany in several waves to move to America, where William Penn had promised religious freedom in the providence of Pennsylvania. The Brethren’s conviction and commitment to the ordinance of believer’s baptism is the foundation of our movement.
Once the Brethren arrived in Pennsylvania, they settled just outside of Philadelphia in what is known as Germantown. The first established congregation baptized individuals in the nearby Wissahickon Creek on Christmas Day in 1723. In his book Finding Our Focus, Dave Plaster described the day this way:
“That day in 1723 marked both the celebration of the nativity of our Lord and the birth of the first Brethren church in America….The fact that it was winter and snow was on the ground did not deter these earnest believers from fulfilling the desire to obey their Lord in the matter of baptism. Therefore, after a noonday meal and after the six candidates had been examined, the twenty-three souls walked to the Wissahickon Creek, not far from the location of the present-day Germantown church and cemetery. When the party reached the banks of the creek, they knelt and offered fervent prayer. A portion of Luke 14 was read, as it was at the first baptism in Germany. The passage speaks of counting the cost in Christian service. They also sang the baptismal hymn composed by Alexander Mack with the pertinent words, ‘Count the cost, says Jesus Christ, when the foundations thou wouldst lay.’
…Peter Becker first entered the water, through a thin layer of ice, leading Martin Urner, the first to be baptized. Following the trine immersion of Urner, that of his wife Catherina was solemnized, and then the four others.”
302 years later, Charis Fellowship churches still practice believer’s baptism — the outward expression of an inward transformation. The video below celebrates baptisms in Charis Fellowship churches around the country. What a joy it is to see believers proclaim saving faith in the work of Jesus Christ!
Watch the whole baptism celebration video here.