When Is My Child Ready for Baptism? Practical Guidance for Parents

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Is your child asking to be baptized, but you’re unsure if they’re ready? In this episode of the Foundation Worldview Podcast, Elizabeth Urbanowicz provides practical advice for discerning baptism readiness in children, especially for those adhering to Believers Baptism. She shares insights about the biblical significance of baptism, her personal perspective on waiting until a certain age, and the importance of involving church elders in the decision-making process. Tune in to learn how to approach this important milestone with wisdom and prayerful consideration.

Transcript

Note: The following is an auto-transcript of the podcast recording.

Hello, friends. Today's podcast question says, "My oldest son is seven and really wants to be baptized, but I'm having a hard time deciding if he's truly ready to make this decision. Thank you for all you do. It's been such a blessing to myself and my children." Well, thank you so much for sharing that. Any blessing that you've experienced from this ministry is purely by God's grace. He's the one that's doing the work. I'm just grateful that I get to be a part of what he's already doing.

Now, as we think through baptism and our children, for any listeners who adhere to believers' baptism, also known as Credo Baptism, which I do as well, it can be a difficult decision to know when are our children ready to be baptized. So that's the question we're going to dive down deep into today on the Foundation Worldview Podcast, where we seek to answer your questions so that you can equip the children that God has placed in your care to carefully evaluate every idea they encounter and understand the truth of the biblical worldview.

I'm your host, Elizabeth Urbanowicz, and I'm thrilled that you've joined me for this episode today. Now, if you have a question that you would like for me to answer on a future Foundation Worldview podcast, you could submit that question by going to FoundationWorldview.com/podcast. Also ask that you would take just a few seconds that it takes to invest time to rate and review this content. Doing so just really helps our content appear in the feeds of more people so that we can equip as many Christian adults as possible to get their kids thinking critically and biblically.

Now, my first response to this questioner, as you're thinking through when your child is ready to be baptized, I would encourage you to go to the elders at your church and to ask them what their view is on this. Because obviously, if your child is going to be baptized, they'll be baptized at your church, and you need to know what the requirements are for baptism at your church. Also, the elders at your church, hopefully, should know you and your family and your child decently well. So they'll be able to ask you very specific questions about why you think your son is or is not ready for baptism, and they'll be able to give you much more wisdom than I can from afar because I know so few details about your situation. So for anyone listening to this podcast who is thinking through this question, that would be my first recommendation is go to the elders at your church. Ask them what the requirements are for baptism at your particular church, and if your child meets those requirements, talk through your child's specific situation and have them help you gauge whether or not it's wise to let your child be baptized at this age.

Now, I'm going to share with you my personal opinion, and I want to be very, very clear that this is my personal opinion, so please take it with a grain of salt because that is all it is. When I'm giving instruction or teaching that's directly from Scripture, that is not my personal opinion, that is the word of God, but this what I'm going to say right here is my personal opinion. So again, take it with a grain of salt. If it were me having to make this decision for a child, I would probably recommend waiting until the child is 12 or older. Now, nowhere in Scripture is it suggested that a child has to be 12 or older before deciding to be baptized. This is merely my opinion based off of just different situations that I have observed in my own life.

So why is it my suggestion that you wait until a child is 12 or older? That's because when a child is 12, typically they're starting to think more for themselves. They're not necessarily just believing everything that has been handed to them. They're thinking critically. Also, usually by the age of 12, children start to care a little bit less about what their parents think. Now, I'm not saying this is a good thing. I'm just saying this is a natural stage in development that when our children are under the age of 12, they usually take anything we say as the gospel truth. They care a lot about our opinion of them, and they still should, hopefully, take what we say seriously. They still should care about our opinion, but it's around the age of 12 that they start to care a little bit more about what their peers think. They start to care a little bit more about outside influences. So I think that it's generally around this age of 12 or a little bit older that you can discern whether or not your child's faith is just what has been handed to them or if it's actually starting to become their own.

Now, this is something that depending on the child, you might be able to discern at an earlier age with your child. Now I'm thinking of myself. Now, I wasn't baptized until I was, I think I was either 14 or 15 years old. However, I was not the child that was super excited anytime someone shared the gospel and gave me an opportunity to turn for my sins and trust in Jesus. That I distinctly remember being presented with the gospel multiple times when I was under the age of five and thinking, I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not sure that that's what I want to trust. I remember even listening to an old, I think it was salty, the singing songbook, and I remember listening to this one episode where one of the kids was like, God, I'm going to trust you with all of me. And they started listening all these different parts of them, and I distinctly remember I was listening to it when I was sitting on a brown couch in my living room at home, and I remember thinking, yeah, God, I'm not sure that I can trust you. I'm not ready to do this yet. And I'm not saying that what I was doing was admirable because ultimately the best thing, the truest thing for to do was to repent to my sin and trust in Christ. But I'm just saying I was a child that I wasn't just naturally like, oh, yes, I believe the gospel wholeheartedly, that it took God working for a while in my life before I actually did repent of my sins and come to Jesus. I was only six, so it wasn't like I was that old, but I think because of that process that I went through, once I turned from my sin and trusted in Christ that my faith was very real and genuine, I still didn't get baptized until I was 14 or 15, but I think in that situation, that's probably a different situation than a child that is just excited about everything and might have prayed a prayer because they were excited about it and we're not sure if they actually have turned from their sin and trusted in Christ.

Now, when we think about what baptism is. Now, this part is where I'm switching from my opinion to what is revealed in Scripture. Baptism is the sign of the covenant that we have entered into me, the new covenant that Jesus has instituted by his death and resurrection, that when we go under the waters, we symbolize dying with Christ. And when we are brought up, that symbolizes being resurrected with Christ. So baptism does not save us, but baptism represents what saves us - the gospel. And so baptism is a sign of the covenant. It's a sign that we are part of God's covenant people. My pastor just said two weeks ago in church about this, that baptism is the sign of the covenant and how if the believer at our church is starting to drift away, that he would point them back like I baptized you. I instituted this symbol of the covenants that you have made with God, that God has made God with you. And so it is a very serious thing as the symbol of the covenant, and so that's why I would encourage you just to be very intentional about going to the elders at your church, being thoughtful, prayerful about whether or not this is the right time for your child to be baptized. Again, please remember that the things I have shared minus baptism being a sign of the covenant are simply my opinion. So please take it with a grain of salt.

Now, if you are watching this on YouTube and you have thoughts about when your child was ready to be baptized or has been ready to be baptized or will be ready to be baptized, please feel free to share your thoughts there. It's always helpful just to hear different opinions and thoughts on these topics as we're seeking to faithfully disciple our children.

Now, in the meantime for this listener, you may talk to the elders at your church and be thoughtful and prayerful about this and decide that it is time for your 7-year-old to be baptized. Or you may go through those things and decide, you know what? Now is the right time for my son to be baptized. I think we're going to wait for a few more years. No matter what the decision is, my charge to you would be just be continue to be faithful. Sorry, I didn't say that. Well, my charge to you would be continue to be faithful in discipling your child, all of your children, that be faithful about discipling the heart, the affections of the heart, the relationships that you have with your children. Be faithful about discipling the hands, the rhythm and routines that you have in place in your home. Be faithful at discipling your child's head, just their thoughts and the way that they're thinking through the gospel and evaluating the many ideas that are coming their way.

For those of you who have never checked out our parenting series at Foundation Worldview, you can get the first lesson of that for free. It is designed to be done in a whole church, so as an individual family, it's probably not the right fit as a whole for your family, but you can get the first lesson for free just to watch at home with your family, and it talks about the head, heart, and hands. Also, I am filming this podcast at the end of 2024, but Lord willing, at some point towards the beginning of 2025, we're going to be refilming a different parenting series that will specifically be designed to be used in the home for families. So please stay tuned for that because we will talk more about discipling the heart, the hands, and the head in that series.

Well, that's a wrap for this episode, but as we leave our time together, my prayer for you is that no matter the situation in which you and the children God has placed in your care find yourselves, that you would trust that God is working all things together for your good by using all things to conform you more into the image of His Son. I'll see you next time.