Child Dedications
If you are a member of Redeeming Grace Church and desire to dedicate your children, there are several upcoming opportunities:
June 9, 2024
If you are interested in dedicating your child(ren) and the above date does not work for you, please get in touch with Carol Sawyer.
What is a child dedication?
A child dedication is an opportunity for parents to publicly declare their intentions to raise their children to disciples who love God by following Jesus. Child dedications are not sacraments, nor are they commanded in Scripture, yet we find them to be a helpful practice to allow parents the opportunity to publicly express their commitment to make disciples of their children.
Is a child dedication simply a baptism without water?
We respect our brothers and sisters who baptize infants out of their understanding of God’s covenant, yet we respectfully disagree. Our understanding of baptism is that it is the response of someone who has made a believable profession of faith in Christ. A child dedication expresses the parents’ desire for their children to grow and come to a place of saving faith and then be baptized.
What commitments are parents making in a child dedication?
First, parents are acknowledging that their children belong to God (Job 41:11). And they are God’s stewards, God’s representatives charged with loving, nurturing, training, and discipling their children.
Second, parents are dedicating themselves. Parenting is hard work requiring great sacrifices and much wisdom and love. No parent has all the resources needed for the job. Child dedications are an opportunity for parents to confess their complete and ongoing dependence upon God in order to be the kind of parents he calls them to be.
Third, child dedications happen when the church is gathered because we recognize that God gives grace to families through the community of the church. These dedications are an opportunity for parents to commit themselves to raising their children in the church and for the church to promise to help where possible.
Who should dedicate their children?
Parents who have committed themselves to following Christ and who are doing so in the context of the church (members or pursuing membership).
