Yesterday, 1300 people from 5 churches across Bournemouth gathered on Boscombe Beach to baptise 92 people. Bournemouth Church Collective, made up of Lansdowne Church, Bournemouth Community Church, Love Church, Catch the Fire Church, and Coastline Vineyard Church, joined together to praise God and celebrate the baptisms of 92 people.
Though from many congregations, the collective joined as one church in Jesus Christ our Lord. Pastor Mike of Lansdowne Church described it as a “real happy sense of unity” between all who attended. Declaring God is ‘Holy Forever’ and my ‘Firm Foundation’, this celebratory service gave space to publicly declare our faith, for long-time believers, new converts, and anyone in between.
Liam Brownen, 35, from Ringwood, was one of those baptised at the event. He shared a powerful testimony of how the church helped him to overcome struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, and that “the second I gave my life to Christ I was instantly relieved of the bondage of addiction.” . He added that the baptism “means everything to me. I owe my life to Christ so to be baptised in his name is unbelievable”.
Pastor Mike of Lansdowne Church shared how this event demonstrated that faith is not merely a private thing and that the church is “alive and kicking” in Bournemouth.
As a member of Bournemouth Community Church, I was amazed by how many people gave their lives to Jesus and got baptised yesterday. A week before, they announced at church that there was about 60 people who had decided to be baptised, which I already thought was astonishing. To then see it rise to more than 90 was amazing, with some responding to the powerful service and giving their lives to Jesus that very morning.
From the young to the old, hearts were touched as the Spirit moved upon that beach. I was blessed to talk to a young girl from my church who scooped up a handful of sand and asked me: “Did you know that God loves you more than all the grains of sand?” She looked at how many were in her hands (hundreds and thousands?), across the beach (two hundred billion?), and over all the beaches in the world… and she could not comprehend how great the Lord’s love must be for us. This simple act of child-like wonder brought me back to the heart of what this day was about. God loves us so much that he was willing to sacrifice his only son to pay the price for our sins, so we could be saved. What greater love could there be than that?
The baptisms left an air of joy on the beach, and, with the sun shining brightly overhead, many people then took to the sea for a splash and a swim, revelling in the waters in which so many had just been made anew. There were picnics and ice creams and sandcastles aplenty, as churchgoers revelled in the amazing witness that morning had been to the Lord Jesus Christ.
