What I said when I was baptised on 18^th November 2007

I've been given this opportunity to tell you why I've chosen to be baptised today, more than 23 years since January 1984 when I first became a Christian.  It's a funny thing, this Christian business.  I was brought up in a Christian home, for which I am very grateful to my parents who are both here today.  I was christened soon after I was born.  That was my ticket into the Church of England and they generally aren't too inquisitive about whether babies have a faith of their own.  I am not sure what I would have said at the time if they had asked.

A few years later I was confirmed, aged 14 or so.  I thought it was the right thing to do even though I remember a conversation during Confirmation classes when I said that I wasn't really quite a Christian yet.  All the same, I was allowed to go through with it.  That was meant to be where I publicly declared my faith, but if I had turned up at the gates of heaven and gone through customs, I would have had to say "Nothing to declare"� .  I was not a Christian then.

I'd like to tell you about my life before I became a Christian. 

As a child I was quite well behaved until I was about 2 or 3, I remember once being told.  After that it all seemed to go to pot.  I didn't do anything spectacularly bad, that I remember, although I managed to get expelled from my first school aged 6.  If you want to know why you can ask my parents.

I had a rather troubled school life generally.  I was difficult and stubborn and as a result got bullied a lot.  When you get bullied you develop a few self-defence mechanisms that make it harder to be hurt, but don't make you a nicer person.  I developed a lot of those.  Being bullied didn't improve my behaviour on the whole.  Quite the contrary.  My school reports are full of reports of my uncooperative behaviour.  I won't give too many examples, but this is typical:

Stephen has made a very promising start particularly in view of his age, and this augurs well for his work in the future.  I am pleased with the way he takes part in the life of the school, though he is sometimes rather overly aggressive.

A boy of bright potential, partially hidden behind his moods and lack of organization and self-discipline.  I hope, with maturity, Stephen will be able to benefit more from his opportunities.

These Subject reports underline again that Stephen's is a personality problem

Stephen really must try to be less aggressive out of class..

That attitude didn't really  change as I grew up and I remember someone telling me that when I left my High school the teacher in charge said "Well,  I  don't think we'll be seeing Stephen again."  He wasn't far wrong.  I only went back once and that was after I became a Christian.

I went to University as a rather introverted character who didn't expect to be liked, and I was quite surprised to make so many friends in my first term.  I had been looking forward to the freedom and took opportunities to get drunk, have fun and do whatever I liked.  It was great for a while, but at the end of the first term I remember thinking "Is that the best life has to offer?"  I was already thinking that this was a fairly empty life despite my first real taste of romance and all the freedom there was there.

Over the holidays I encountered the Sermon in the Mount for the first time as a serious piece of the teaching of Jesus and I remember very clearly after a party in London when I had been discussing this with my sister's boyfriend at the time I said to Jesus that I wanted to follow him.  I went to sleep feeing really good about that decision and woke up wanting to know more.

I read the Bible loads and found it gripping.  In fact I couldn't get enough of it.  One thing I noticed when I became a Christian was that I stopped swearing without even trying.  I wish that all my many different faults were that easy to deal with, but as any of you who know me will say, I'm nowhere near perfect yet!

It took me a while to sort out a few wrong ideas about the Bible and faith, as I had begun to develop my own ideas which were a bit unorthodox, but really went from strength to strength.

Since then there has been a lot of different stuff in my life, some quite hard.  It's been a long time and I could talk for hours about it, but I'd just like to say that my life was totally transformed by Jesus and it has all been for the better.  If you want to know more I'll be very glad to tell you,

So why get baptised now, as this all happened 24 years ago?

Well I've been wanting to get baptised for a while, but I've been attending Anglican churches which aren't able to do what they see as a re-baptism.  An important part of Baptism to me is that it is something shared by the whole church, but previously I would have had to get done on the quiet somewhere.  So I decided to wait. 

Many churches, including this one, don't consider that baptism as a baby really counts, as the baby is too young to make the decision itself.  I agree with that point of view, although I respect the views of those who disagree.  So now I feel part of a fellowship that feels comfortable with baptising me properly, I am taking the opportunity to get done.

I'm counting on your prayers and support as I continue to grow in my faith and love for Jesus, who is my Lord, my God and my closest friend.