When believers join the membership of Brackenhurst Baptist Church, they make certain covenantal commitments, including, “We will endeavour to lead those in our care in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, as well as to seek the salvation of our family and friends.” Hence, church members declare their desire and determination to raise a godly seed—should the Lord give them children—the day they become members. Contrary to tradition, a “baby dedication” is therefore not necessary. However, it is wonderful when parents publicly give thanks for God’s gift of a child, re-affirming their commitment to raise their child in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4), asking the congregation for its assistance and accountability to do so. This coming Sunday, we once again have the opportunity to participate in this public celebration/dedication.
In view of this, I thought it would be helpful to publish what is a suggested parental commitment for such an occasion. What follows is rooted in biblical principles, and therefore it aims to provide truthful guidance. This has been used by many parents over many years here at BBC.
Please read and familiarise yourself with its content and then, as we gather this Lord’s Day, we will be on the same page, literally.
We hereby acknowledge our responsibility before God, and before this community of faith, to intentionally raise __________ in a culture of Christ-centred commitment, believing God for ______ salvation. Motivated by faith in God we endeavour to do the following.
We commit ourselves to believing God’s promises and to behaving like we believe them. We will seek to do so with special focus on his promises to save __________. We will therefore endeavour to live by faith believing that God is pleased to reward those who diligently seek him.
We therefore pledge our allegiance, once again, to fight the good fight of faith as we seek to consistently live under the lordship of Christ thereby commending him to __________ as his/her Saviour. We commit ourselves, in the light of the lordship of Christ, to the sacrifices necessary to give __________ a thoroughly Christ-centred worldview.
We commit ourselves to intentionally adorn the gospel by our lives, both in our successes and in our failures. We hereby commit ourselves to not only preach the gospel to __________ but to also preach it to ourselves when we sin. We commit to using our failures to further point __________ to the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
We commit ourselves to both commanding __________ to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as well as commending saving faith in him. We commit to doing so both by our lips and by our lives.
We understand that to raise _______ in the training and admonition of the Lord is a super-human task, and we therefore will seek to fulfil this biblical mandate in dependence upon the grace of God.
In acknowledging our dependence upon the Triune God, we hereby commit ourselves to utilising the various practical means of grace which he has provided. We will be intentionally faithful to fulfilling our covenantal responsibilities as members of BBC; we will expose __________ to the numerous opportunities to learn of Jesus Christ through the ministries of BBC.
We willingly invite BBC to hold us accountable to this public covenant and we undertake to respond to admonitions with humility and with a willingness to learn.
Believing that salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9), we nevertheless embrace our responsibility for the spiritual outcome of __________. We also will endeavour to do all that we can to aid BBC in its biblical mandate to raise a godly seed for (at least!) a thousand generations.
Finally, in the light of the seriousness of this joyful task of raising __________ for God in Christ, we seek the aid of the Holy Spirit to guide us in his word. We also ask BBC to stand with us and pledge to both walk and to work with us covenantally in the raising of a godly seed. We promise to heed the word of the Lord from you and to seriously weigh your practical counsel in the light of Scripture.