JUST ASK THE QUESTION

Christians gathering in an Ecumenical dialogue to learn more about each other's church.

2P – GETTING WASHED UP

Question 2: What is your church’s view on Baptism; what is it, when do you do it, how do you do it, is it essential?

To view previous questions and responses simply scroll down to archives and click on the topic or church of your choice.

Presbyterian (Steve) writes:

This is a much more difficult question for me to answer because of my own experience.  I was baptized as a Southern Baptist when I was 12 and then became a born-again Christian when I was sixteen and re-baptized as an adult.  But here I am a Presbyterian and like other mainline churches, we practice infant baptism. Presbyterian doctrine is very unclear about what really happens at a baby's baptism.  We say the child becomes a part of the "Covenant Community" but few ministers would say that means the child becomes a regenerated child of God. We say that the child must come to a place in his or her life where they embrace the faith on their own.  I personally baptize infants but explain that how the parents raise the child will be much more important than the ceremony.  And I explain that when the child is ready, we pray he or she will embrace the faith as his or her own.  We also baptize adults who have not been baptized as infants who profess the faith.

posted by: muniz at 16:38 | link | comments |
t2-baptism, c-presbyterian

1P – CAN WE TALK?

Question 1: What is your church’s view on dialogues with other churches or communities of different doctrinal beliefs?

To view previous questions and responses simply scroll down to archives and click on the topic or church of your choice.

Presbyterian (Steve) writes:

My experience with other churches really began in France where the percent of practicing Christians is so very low, that denominational labels and beliefs mean very little.  Pastors of various denominations met each month to pray and plan together and were always very cooperative.  That experience carried over into my experience with ministerial associations in America.  I have been a part of ministerial associations including Catholic and Protestant that prayed together in Prayer Summits and literally turned their cities back to God.  Where I live in Collinsville, there is a very active ministerial association which sponsors a food pantry and benevolence ministry supported by several churches including our Catholic church.  We are planning a Prayer Summit in the spring where we will all go away to pray for 2-3 days. We are all very excited about what God will do through the Church as we work together with Him.

posted by: muniz at 16:35 | link | comments |
t1-dialogue, c-presbyterian

0P – LET ME INTRODUCE TO YOU…

Steve Artz is the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Collinsville, IL.  His pilgrimage in the faith has been broad.  His parents raised him in a Southern Baptist Church where he was immersed as a teenager.  He became a born-again Christian his senior year of high school at a Billy Graham Crusade.  The desire to learn more about the Bible led him to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago where he met his future wife. After Moody he attended a university where he was very active with the Navigators, a campus Christian organization.  After teaching high school for a year, he and his wife became campus ministers at Indiana State University with the Navigators.  The near collapse of their marriage led them to drop out of the ministry all together and get counseling for the next three years. 

During this time they became members of an exciting Presbyterian Church which was a real first for them, as growing up they were taught that Presbyterians were liberal and did not really believe in the Bible.  Instead they found people who loved Jesus Christ and were humble and open to learn and grow. Since their days at Moody, their desire had been to become missionaries in France and that dream was realized in 1976.  They went to France with an interdenominational mission, Greater Europe Mission.  Their mission was to begin an evangelical church in a suburb that had never had a protestant witness.  In the next 14 years God began a church and formed a team to reach out to the thousands of Muslim immigrants in France.

Since 1990, he has been the pastor of Presbyterian churches in California, Michigan and now Collinsville, Illinois.  He has always been involved in ministerial associations wherever they have lived and is currently the president of the Collinsville ministerial (CAMA). The passion of his life since becoming a Christian in high school has been to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ to those who have yet to hear.  He and his wife have always had a Bible study group in our neighborhood and have seen God bring neighbors to Christ.  The gospel of Jesus Christ has always been more important to him than any church affiliation.

posted by: muniz at 15:26 | link | comments |
t0-introduction, c-presbyterian