What Is Child Dedication?
Cities Church is a community of Christians who live as the on-the-ground expression of the universal supremacy of Jesus by advancing his gospel in distance and depth. We gather regularly to worship God, to be fueled by the right teaching of the Scriptures, and to observe the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
We believe that baptism, as stated in our Leader Affirmation of Faith, “is an ordinance of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in His death and resurrection, by being immersed in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (12.3). By implication, this means that we do not baptize infants — a common practice in many Christian traditions.
One of the aspects of infant baptism that we appreciate is the high view of children that such a practice communicates. It is a time within the local congregation when they recognize the significance of a child born into a believing home. The local church, in effect, rallies around the child in thanksgiving to God, and to welcome the child into the life of the church. This is beautiful and in harmony with Scripture’s vision of children as a blessing. Jesus said to his disciples, and to us, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14).
As a local church, we also want to affirm the blessing of children and our commitment to them, though we believe infant baptism is at odds with the biblical teaching on baptism. How might we recognize the significance of children born to believing parents who, in God’s providence, will teach their children the gospel? How might we give thanks to God for giving our community such a blessing? How might we, as a church, commit to these families to be a community that faithfully teaches the gospel and shows with our lives what it means to treasure Jesus more than anything?
In our eagerness to express this multidimensional reality, Cities Church practices dedication ceremonies. These ceremonies are neither commanded in Scripture nor confer, in and of themselves, any special graces upon the children, but they do present an opportunity for us to join together for the purposes of recognition, thanksgiving, and commitment.
1. We Recognize the Blessing
The first purpose of the dedication ceremony is for the church to recognize that children are a gift from God, and that as a gift, a calling has been put on the parents’ lives.
By recognizing the children, the church invites the parents to express their commitment to teach their children the gospel and live in step with its truth — which is an important part of the covenant membership vows: “We engage to maintain family and personal devotions; to seek the salvation of our friends and family; to educate our children in the Christian faith.”
The ceremony isn’t the place where parents initiate their commitment before God to raise their children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4), but it is an occasion for the parents to express their commitment to the church corporately, which brings the parents freshly under the church’s accountability.
2. We Give God Thanks
The second purpose of the dedication ceremony is to give thanks to God.
God is the Giver of all good gifts (James 1:17). He is one who has blessed this world with children, in general, and he is the one who, in his providence, has blessed the families of Cities Church with children who will live among a consistent gospel witness. One essential response to this blessing is gratitude. We consider the dedication ceremony a time for us as a church to join together in thanking God for his immeasurable grace — grace to save us, grace to give us children, and grace to proclaim his might to another generation (Psalm 71:18).
3. We Commit Ourselves to the Family
The third purpose of the dedication ceremony is the church’s commitment to the parents and the children to faithfully teach the gospel and show with our lives what it means to value Jesus as our Lord, Savior, and greatest Treasure.
This final purpose is the heart of the ceremony. The dedication is an act of the church for the parents and child. This is the time when the church unites to reengage our resolve to be the church for these families. We, as a church, are dedicating ourselves to partner with the parents to raise their children in the grace and truth of Jesus, and therefore, we, as a church, are dedicating ourselves to the child’s nurture, growth, and everlasting good.
