Living Under Water: Finding Your Story in Baptism

Team Members/Contributors

Kevin J Adams Granite Springs Church Contact Me

About this pastoral study project

Living Under Water: Finding Your Story in Baptism

The Louisville Institute Pastoral Study Project: Project Summary

Rev. Kevin Adams

“I am a baptized person, and today I will live out my baptism.” Martin Luther

“This baptism is profitable not only when the water is on us and when we receive it, but throughout our entire lives.”

From the Belgic Confession, Art 34

Project Summary:

Spiritual novices and veterans build their identity from a smorgasbord of images, narratives, and life practices often in conflict with each other. This project invites Christians and those in the “borderlands” between faith and doubt to receive and strengthen their identity as “The Baptized”--those who die and rise with Christ--through the use of story. Outside the church baptism can be viewed as a minor, formulaic event in a person’s life. Inside the church baptism can seem a subject of rival theologies and practices. Through the gift of story, baptism can be experienced as a lifelong participation in the great, true story told since the dawn of creation and as a lifelong belonging to the bewilderingly diverse people of “one baptism.” Drawing on fresh stories from diverse North American contexts, and gathering stories from every generation and continent of believers, I intend to write a book for individuals and communities of all spiritual backgrounds. By hearing and telling stories of and about baptism, readers will exult with Martin Luther, “I am baptized!”