John Piper’s sermon from this past weekend is awesome.  He really gets at the heart of the issues involved.  Here’s an excerpt:

So you see where this leads us: As a member of this church, you can be wrong on election, wrong on the power of sin, wrong on the extent of atonement, wrong on the power of grace, wrong on perseverance, and wrong on the sovereignty of God—but you can’t be wrong on baptism. Perhaps that’s the way it should be because of the uniqueness of baptism in its one-time, unrepeatable dramatization of Christian conversion. Or perhaps there should be membership not just for those who don’t fully understand and follow the doctrines of grace, but also for those who don’t fully understand and follow the doctrine of baptism.

This is part of a three part series.  Here’s the link to David Mathis’s summary.  I encourage everyone to check it out.  After listening to this I think the Lord has given me a go ahead to join a local PCA church that I have been attending for some time with a clear conscience even though I disagree with the way they administer baptism.  I praise God for being so faithful to answer my pleas for wisdom.

For anyone interested, a blog-debate (or conversation for those of you who bristle at the word debate) that took place last summer involving Piper, Wayne Grudem, Mark Dever, Sam Storms and others.  Justin Taylor summarized the whole exchange if you’d like to check it out.  This is what got me started thinking about everything over a year ago and I’m excited to have more of an idea where I am on this issue.  I may post in the near future describing my own experience in more detail.  Stay tuned 🙂

P.S.  The end of this message is so encouraging, the way that Piper humbles himself and shares a need for growth for himself and for his church.  It’s incredible to see how his theological convictions are so rooted in real life.