Baptism at the beach
It’s 6:30 a.m. on a Sunday. The water’s cold enough to make your toes tingle. Not exactly prime time for beach-ing along Lake Michigan’s shore. But, as a part of a local church’s annual baptism, dozens of young people took a dip to proclaim their Christian faith. About 60 young city dwellers took the very chilly step into their lives as Christian adults during Park Community Church’s annual baptism in Lake Michigan one Sunday in mid-July.
A contemporary, non-denominational congregation on Chicago’s North Side, Park Community is home to hundreds of 20-somethings starting their own post-college spiritual practices. Many of its members were raised in the Christian tradition and see the baptism as a way to mark their decisions to follow church teachings as adults.
“It’s sort of dual purpose: one is so that everyone is assembled here and everybody in general knows that you’re saying ‘I am a Christian and I belong to God and I love Jesus’… and the second thing is just sort of a pact between yourself and God that you should be living life a certain way,” said 25-year-old Eliezer Gonzalez who’s been attending Park Community for almost a year.
Joe Riccardi, an associate pastor, told me that in the 15 years Park Community has been calling its congregation to the lakeshore at North Avenue, the event has never been rained out. (With the way weather goes here in Chicago, I don’t think you need to be a Christian to realize that’s near-miraculous in itself.)
Even for such a high-tech and contemporary church, the early-morning baptism brought to mind Southern Christian folklore with participants descending in to the lake’s slow, rhythmic waves and singing “Amazing Grace.”
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Tags: Chicago, Christianity, church
July 28th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I was a member of Park Community Church in my 20s, and also baptized in Lake Michigan in 2001. I always thought that Chicago was a unique place for this Christian young adult demographic. It’s the perfect place for a church like Park and for people looking to do life together. Great piece.
July 28th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
My husband and I were baptized together in 1994 which I believe was the second year we did baptisms at Park; and I can attest to the fact that it’s NEVER been rained out. We’ve been at almost every service since – even the one 6 years ago when I was in labor!