Cell Groups in January

In the month of January, the discussion topic for Cell Groups is Baptism.  As a Church of Christ youth ministry, you might assume that we would talk about baptism right off the bat when discussing the book of Acts.  It would not be a horrible assumption to make - I believe baptism is a vitally important part of the Christian experience.  I heard a speaker recently say that baptism is the only physical ritual that Churches of Christ really have.  I am not sure about the only ritual, but certainly it is our most important.  I do agree that it is the only ceremony that you could logically glean from an exclusive reading of the book of Acts.  It's a procedure that recurs over and over again.  On Wednesday night at Sanctuary, we ran through a lengthy (but not exhaustive) list of instances of people being immersed as an initiation into the way of Jesus.  Since baptism (or immersion) is found at the beginning of the new disciples (they weren't called Christians until halfway through Acts) walk with the Christ, it may have seemed logical to discuss this topic way back in September or October.  However, I didn't because I first wanted to highlight what the people in Acts were entering into when they chose to be immersed.  I wanted to give a thumbnail sketch of a people who were willing to love and serve one another.  A people who put the needs of others ahead of themselves.  A people committed to accept people from different cultures and backgrounds in the name of Christ.  A people who valued the well-being of their neighbors more than they valued their possessions.  We finished the evening by taking a look at what Paul believed happened at this moment of immersion.  In Romans 6, he lays out how baptism is symbolic of our participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Over the course of the month, the goal is for students who have not made this very important step to consider the receiving the new life promised through baptism.  For the students who have already been baptized into Christ, the hope is that they will be reminded of the significance - that they died to sin and that sin should no longer have reign over them.