Quote Originally Posted by 19K View Post
is it something anyone with a heart for the Lord can do?
Yes.
My first two kids were baptized in a lake by our pastor, assisted by other men of the congregation (around 1993). Around 1997, daughter and three neighbors were baptized in a creek by my husband. Around 2001, youngest son was baptized by my husband in an ice-cold "brook" in Vermont, when we were up there helping with tent revivals in a ministry that we were part of. We've also baptized a girl in a borrowed baptistry at a church that hosted our street ministry in New Orleans, and we baptized a neighborhood girl we led to the Lord in our bathtub.

The important things about baptism are:

  • The person has professed Jesus Christ as his/her Lord and Savior
  • He/she understands the significance of baptism, that it is an outward testimony to others of an inward act: dying to your old life and being born anew in Christ
  • It is performed by a born-again, Bible-believing follower of the Lord Jesus Christ
  • It is done in front of "others". I believe if you do it at home, you should invite other believers to participate, or else do it in a public place where people will witness it -- like in a swimming hole, lake, creek, etc.