Online Archives

She was 8-years old when she came to the Rev. Fred Iser asking, ?Preacher, will you baptize me??

That simple request set the spirit-filled summer afternoon in motion. Iser, pastor of a four-point charge in Flintstone, shared with members of his congregations how that request touched him.

The girl had been bringing her brother to church at Murley Branch UMC. Her spirit was contagious, Iser said. He received requests to do 13 other baptisms.

It is a custom of the charge to sometimes hold baptisms by immersion at Town Creek. Church members bring a picnic, a vespers service is held and then Iser performs the baptisms, immersing people in the river as ?they are buried with Christ and resurrected with Christ.?

The setting adds to the sense of the holy that descends on these events, Iser said. Five miles from Route 68, the only sounds are of birds and frogs coming out for the evening.
 ?It?s not a swimming pool, it?s a God-created setting.?

From the highway, the church sets out signs. They say simply, ?baptism,? and point the way.

On this particular afternoon, Aug. 19, one local man saw the signs and felt compelled to follow them. He was a Christian, he said, but had never been baptized.

He asked Iser to perform the sacrament and  Iser agreed.

Standing in the river, symbolically welcoming people into the family of God,  ?I don?t think there?s anything to describe that feeling. When they come out of that water ? it?s a moment,? Iser said. ?It?s intense. I?ve stood in the creek and cried.?

 ?By Water and the Spirit: A United Methodist Understanding of Baptism? the denomination?s official statement on baptism, can be found at http://www.gbod.org/homepage/new_home/baptism/page_1.htm.