Dedication of infants and children

At High Street Baptist Church we offer and encourage the opportunity for all parents to mark the birth of a child in a service of worship, and we believe that this provides an ideal opportunity to give thanks for this new life and to commit as parent/parents to bringing up this child to the best of your ability and in the teaching the Christian faith. The act of dedication also gives the local church an opportunity to offer their support and prayer for you.

What the Bible teaches about dedication

The service gives the opportunity to give thanks to God and to dedicate you and your child. In the Bible Jesus welcomed children and blessed them, and this has been an example Baptists over many years have followed.

• Here is joy over the gift of a child and the acknowledgement that all life comes from God.
• Here is a celebration of family life and an acknowledgement that children are not the property of parents, but children named before God, children with whose welfare and nurture we are entrusted.
• Here is a grateful celebration of the importance of community and the truth that parents and children need not be alone.
• Here is a confession that all hope rests in Jesus Christ and the best we can want for our children is that they become his true disciples.