Baptismal Program

In about 2 months our only daughter will turn 8 and have the opportunity to be baptized.  This is a big day for her and she is getting very excited for the whole process.

It is amazing to see how much more now she questions things and is wanting to learn and understand how things work.

She had a great question the other night when we had the full time missionaries over for dinner.  She asked: "Why do ladies not have the priesthood?".  Boy that is not your typical question, and is rather deep on some levels.  This was a first for the missionaries so my wife specified that females have a different calling to be mothers and such.  That solved the problem and gave her the answer she needed.  We could have gone into scripture and the like but, it would not have helped all that much more.

Now we have been planning the baptismal ceremony.  We confirmed with the bishop of the local unit the basic parts.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints there are 2 parts to a baptismal ceremony.  The first is the actual baptism performed by a Aaronic priesthood holder of the office of Priest or by a holder of the Higher or Melchizedek Priesthood.  The second portion is the confirmation as a member of the church and the receiving of the Holy Ghost.   If it is a convert baptism that part is now taken care of in the next Sacramental meeting on a Sunday.  In my daughter's case it is handled the same day shortly after the baptismal ordinance has been handled since she is a child of record and not yet 9 years old.
Along with the ordinances you usually have someone give a short talk on the importance of the ordinances.  This helps the people present to understand the significance of what is occurring.  They maybe combined or separate as we will do.

So the only major thing we are trying to resolve is what to do while the people that were involved in the baptism are changing their cloths.  We originally though about having a slide show involving pictures from the life of our daughter. Then we came to the conclusion this would be a bit pushy and not very appropriate.  Then we turned to things we have seen at other baptismal services.  There have been missionary invites, bearing of testimonies, singing of music and short video presentations.   We are opting for a short video presentation as this makes sure there is not an awkward time of silence where people are wondering what is going to happen.  This also helps if we take a bit long in changing our cloths.   There have been short missionary invites that leave a strange amount of dead time when done if the people are not back yet.  We also witnessed a pianist and chorister that were not prepared with the needed additional music and it became again awkward.


So we have been thinking hard of a video presentation that would be appropriate while at the same time not too long.  It needs to be around 10-15 minutes time so some films like "Prodigal Son" would not work.  "Together Forever" is great and has several shorter pieces but, again it is hard to cut it off in the middle of something.  So we have turned towards the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  We are thinking that a video presentation of them singing along with some inspiring vistas or scenes would be the best.  Now we just have to come up with one that fits the best.  We want to avoid one of the many wonderful Christmas DVDs that will not fit very well with a June baptism.

Likely it will be their "Historic Nauvoo" or "Songs of America" presentations.  But, who can beat their music right?  It will just be a great uplift to the service.  And in reality they are so famous that several current artists have recorded with them for their Christmas albums - Josh Groban, and Andrea Bocelli

Want to find out what it takes to make an album with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?  Check out here a great article!



       

     

     

       





I'm going to include links to the two songs we will be using as the opening and closing. Also we are lucky to the a very excellent singer in our unit that happens to be a birthday buddy with my daughter who will sing "I'm trying to be like Jesus". I'm including a like to that as well.

When I Am Baptized - #103 
I Feel My Savior's Love - #74 
I'm Trying to Be like Jesus - #78 

If you'd like to be able to review some of the other wonderful songs in the Children's Songbook and even download digital copies you can do so here 

If you'd like to know a little bit more on why we do not baptize our children until they have reached at least 8 years of age - check out these verses in Moroni 8.
If you'd like to get the straight scoop on what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints really believe you can request to have a missionary visit you - Missionaries Request for Visit


Buaidh - NO - Bas