Hi all,

All our family worship and bible study is done here at home. We sing, we pray together, read the bible, I tell bible stories to my kids (all about age 9 ), and we listen to preachers on TV or radio from time to time. We just don't go to a church.

We have tried churches, but for practical and sometimes philosophical reasons we haven't found one to settle into. We won't try anymore either. We are okay with the way it is now, worshiping at home. We do fellowship with other believers, just not at a church.

Now, all that being the case, I have come to a situtation I would like some opinions on from Christians here at TTOL. My children have asked to be baptized. I feel they are completely ready for it, which to me is meaningful and important in a baptism. I think, as some people do, that baptism should be for those that know what it is all about. I was baptized as an infant, but now think it'd be better to be conscious of what it means at the time. My kids do fully understand what it means. And, they have asked for it and want it dearly. The time has come, they should be baptized.

Is baptism something a layman can perform? Must one be "ordained" to baptize? John the Baptist wasn't "ordained," or was he, somehow? As in, was he ordained because he was chosen directly by God? He baptized our Lord in the river. So, I am pretty sure it doesn't have to take place at a church? But, is it something anyone with a heart for the Lord can do? What is everyone's opinion about doing this baptism ourselves? Thank you.