We celebrate both infant and adult baptism as a way of receiving people into the family of faith here at First Pres. When someone is baptized, the congregation promises to receive that person into fellowship and to walk with them in such a way that they will be continually surrounded by Christian love and care.
Adult baptism is a way for someone who has professed faith in Christ to publicly declare that faith. Adult baptism is often celebrated when an adult who has not previously been baptized becomes a covenant partner at First Pres.
Infant baptism (up to age 3) symbolizes inclusion in the family of God. We celebrate that God's sovereign grace moves toward us first—often before we are able to understand. When believing Christian parents baptize their children, they promise—along with the entire church—to raise them in the faith, so that they will have every opportunity to know and follow Christ. Once a child makes his or her own profession of faith, a service of confirmation completes the arc that baptism began.