Godparents

Though we've been talking with her about it for several months, Erin and I "officially" became godparents for Ryder Talamatez on Sunday, as Franci presented Ryder for baptism.
Ryder's the oldest kid I'd ever baptized or dedicated, which also made him the loudest. Franci was holding her mic before the baptism but Ryder got ahold of it and sang at the top of his lungs during the whole worship set. He didn't stop when the music stopped, though, he sang through the entire baptism liturgy, even while his mom was sharing with the church what God is doing in her heart. I don't know where Ry gets it, it's not like there's any performance genes in his body or anything.

I always have the parents give a blessing or pray for their child (unless they're terrified of public speaking), so Franci shared what God's doing in her heart and why she's baptizing Ryder. She shared that since meeting us last summer as director of The Music Man, Erin and I have been a huge influence in her life; being there for her and helping her struggle with questions about faith. Even though she's still not quite sure what to believe, she's baptizing Ryder because she wants for her son what she sees in our lives. She asked us to be his godparents because she wants Ryder to choose Christ and wants us to be there to help him with that decision.
Because Ryder was going to town in the mic, Franci wasn't able to share everything she'd planned to say. But she told Erin later about how she'd wished she could've shared why she's baptizing Ryder at TFC. Basically, it's because she's spent time in our church and trusts us and wants this to be the church where Ryder learns about Christ. She had high praise for what she's experienced at TFC.
When a good friend of ours who is on a journey toward truth finds TFC to be an inviting and safe place, well, that makes me VERY proud of our church.

Ryder's dad, Chris, had a bunch of family there, too. Many of them shared afterwards that they were glad to know Ryder had us as his godparents. I kept quite the response in my head, "you obviously don't know me very well." Quite a few of the family members were also thanking me for the message, that it helped them take some steps toward God.
I must say, it was a powerful worship/ sermon and response time that day. To hear the message, click here. I put this message together with (a lot of) help from Tim Keller and John Burke.

There were several families from Gardner Community Theatre there that day, too. Just like with Gardner's Got Talent from the night before, it was really neat to see the two most significant communities in my life, TFC and GCT come together. After worship, we had a cookout at Vern and Becky Denoon's house to celebrate Ry's baptism. As I like to say about GCT, "putting the community back into community theatre."