16 May 23 Baptisms at Banner Church!

J. Michael Caley, senior pastor, Banner of Christ Church (Byron Center, Mich.)

This past 7 months, Banner of Christ Church walked as a congregation through a unique experience using “The Story” by Randy Frazee and Max Lucado. We started in October and built the schedule to hit Passion week with the account of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The teaching covers 31 lessons of overview through the Old and New Testament account of God’s Upper story plan and how he set out to reconnect with us in our lower story.

It was a full church involvement from the youngest kids through every level of adults. All small groups and Sunday school classes followed along, so the message teaching was a reinforcement or expansion on their group discussion. We wondered if everyone would stay with it for the entire 7 months…and they did!

Throughout the Story, we gave opportunity for new commitments to Christ or for recommitments as people began to see God’s whole story unfold in rich details. Over the past three months we had 7 individuals make those professions of faith. On May 5 we culminated our Story experience with a baptism day.

Twenty-three individuals, ages 9 to 80, were baptized in the service!

It was a record day with 265 people in attendance, including many guests who were invited to witness their friends or family members celebrate their new life in Christ. Each had recorded a video testimony that was played as they stepped into the tank.