Are outdoor baptisms dwindling?

I have to take issue with a recent article in the USA Today talking about how outdoor baptisms are dwindling. The fairly poor sourced story admits there are no stats kept on outdoor dunking. Plus the quotes the paper used seem fairly general. There’s a seminary professor saying there aren’t as many. And there’s a Southern Baptist publisher saying most churches have indoor baptisteries. The whole article feels forced and a touch made up to me.

The main reason I have objections to this article is the fact that I feel like from my personal experience, I’ve heard about more outdoor baptisms this year than I have in the past. Park Community Church in Chicago recently had a baptism event in Lake Michigan. National Community Church in Washington, D.C. just had “Baptism as the Bay” at Sandy Point State Park. Just a few weeks ago, I was spending time on the beach and watched two people get baptized in Lake Michigan. And my own church is having a baptism event later this month. While church leaders were looking at doing it in a natural body of water, the decision was made to build our own outdoor baptistery on campus.

There are four examples I know about in my own life without doing any research.  How about you? In your communities have you heard of any outdoor baptisms recently? Or am I alone on this one?

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Comments (10)

I know that at many summer camps, the baptisms take place at the end of the week in the pool. There's got to be countless outdoor baptisms that happen all across the country at camps in the summer. I saw at least 15 this summer, myself.
my church (new hope oahu, enewhope.org) always holds outdoor water baptism at a public beach park.
My church prefers them outdoors, South Dakota weather permitting. Just baptized five in a nearby lake this past weekend, which is remarkable given our small, rural 100-and-something sized church. We do have an indoor baptistry for other times of year. I found that an odd part of the research -- churches that practice baptism by immersion have long had indoor facilities for that purpose. If anything, I'd say there's a current resurgence of outdoor baptisms, but again my research is pretty limited and poorly sourced as well.
I just baptized two people this past Sunday in the lake. A number of people were watching and you could tell they were curious.
my thought is, who cares, indoors, outdoors ,indoor with a removable roof, in door with plants around, underneath a tent, in a bath tub, in a hot tub who cares ... a baptism is a baptism!
Well, just to offer a different perspective, I have never seen an outdoor baptism, except in Tyler Perry's movie, The Family That Preys. I was raised in a Presbyterian church (sprinkling of infants, also of adults not previously baptized). I currently belong to an AME Zion church (held immersion baptisms indoors at another church, before our church got its own building, but don't know of any outdoors). I have witnesses indoor baptisms by immersion, and a very dear friend of mine was baptized in Lake Michigan about twelve years ago, but that's all I know.

I'm really kind of out of a lot of things. I spent all my formative years believing pierced ears were a barbaric custom that died out with the 19th century. Well, my mother wore clamp earings. I only saw anything about pierced ears in old biographies.
We (The Creek Church in Cary, NC) just experienced our first baptism at Jordan Lake. Five were baptized in the lake's swimming area as many of those swimming and those sun-bathing looked on!
Neller1 - Funny you mention baptizing in Lake Jordan. I'm a pastor down in Florida and have a Pastor friend in Durham, NC and last time I was up he showed me Jordan Lake and I yelled you should baptize their! It's the Jordan!
Every year our church has summer camp, and for me one of the top highlights is the baptisms we do in the creek or river or Lake or wherever we hold camp. It is a very emotional experience for everyone involved, not only just those being baptized but those doing the baptizing and even the observers. It is truly an awesome experience. And before this I just thought baptism was just a sprinkling of water on your head as a baby. By the Way our Church which is called 'The Way' is way up here in Alberta, Canada. And our baptisms were done in a creek that branched out of The Clearwater River, not very deep but deep enough to submerge and cold but it was for the Glory of God so well worth the dip
my grandaughter was just baptized in our local river last month who goes to a baptist church. Soon two more of my grandchildren will be baptized
but I'm not sure if it will be in a river or a baptistry in our church.

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