118 Dimensions of Baptism
face of light industry. With all this there comes a range of Christian back-
grounds and broadly ecumenical sympathy, though it is worth noting that a
number of incomers never really find a 'home' within the local churches.
In what has become common practice among many Baptist churches,
we acknowledge those journeys of faith which have led people to request
membership, by welcoming those who have previously been baptized and
confirmed in other Christian traditions by means of their confession of
faith witnessed by the congregation. We have explored the meanings of
baptism in various ways, through Sunday worship and preaching, through
fellowship and study groups. And yet the children and young people now
growing up in the church have not witnessed believer's baptism as the
norm, apart from in the rather differently nuanced services when the local
Pentecostal congregation 'borrowed' the church building and baptistery.
Out in the country, on the other hand—remembering that we are speak-
ing of only a few miles, and of small villages whose inhabitants spend
much of their time in the town for school or work—the picture in Baptist
chapels is rather different. There is a residual sense of needing to have the
young people baptized before they go away to college. Even if those
young people have not attended chapel for some years it still seems
important to stamp their identity as chapel-Baptist. The location of the
baptism, often in a river, seems to be more noteworthy than its meaning.
One of my first contacts outside of the town came from the request for
such a baptism from a chapel with no minister. Upon deliberate misunder-
standing of the request as an invitation to provide a series of preparation
classes, the request was withdrawn and a more amenable local pastor
sought.
Some Anglican colleagues in this area point to a doctrine of 'salvation
by works' in 'Baptist' baptism. I can only point to 'what really is' in Bap-
tist understanding and perception. But what they have seen is the popular
mode. There is an unprovable suspicion in my mind that some of the
perception of 'justification by works' may well have been apparent in
'what really was' in the popular mode of Palestinian Judaism, even though
its literature and scholars sought to express 'what really should be'. In the
same way, we struggle with the popular and considered aspects in
Christian expression.
There are spin-offs from Sanders's work, indirectly related to his inves-
tigation in Paul and his Jewish background, which leave us with the crea-
tive irritant of philosophical and practical questions: we become awarethat it is never sufficient to rely entirely on readings of Scripture which