A Strategy for Delaying the Baptism of Young Children

I’ve used and recommended similar questions to the much better ones you have. What do you do when your questioning the child and the parents are coaching the child to the correct answers? I’ve asked parents to not say anything but to let their child answer in their own words, but some parents just want to “help”.

That to me is a very good indication who actually wants this baptism to happen—the parents, not the child. If a child can’t answer for himself but the parent has to give the answers I would generally not be comfortable moving forward with the baptism.

I require our children to come talk to me about it, apart from their parents (always in a public setting!). We’ve had a number of young ones come to me over the last couple of years and I’ve had the joy of baptizing them and seeing spiritual fruit in their lives.

Another thing to watch for is siblings… as soon as one kid gets baptized, the brother or sister think they want to also, just to keep up. They have to learn that baptism isn’t a contest or an achievement!