John Jenkins said holding a baptism service just after Easter has made sense for his church family for a long time.

“We kind of always do this after Easter because we really push our people to share the gospel at Easter, and we want them to be able to celebrate after the fact,” said Jenkins, pastor of Northport Baptist Church.

This Sunday (April 24) his church will baptize four of the six people who gave their lives to Christ on Easter Sunday. Northport Baptist’s service coincides with Baptism Sunday, a national emphasis across churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. Baptism Sunday is a way of recognizing the first step of obedience new believers take after trusting in Christ for salvation, said Johnny Hunt, senior vice president of evangelism and leadership at the North American Mission Board.

“We come together as Southern Baptists to recognize Baptism Sunday to remind ourselves that the main reason for our partnership is the mission of seeing lost people saved,” Hunt said. “My heartbeat and passion these past few years at NAMB has been to equip and encourage churches to engage their communities with the gospel and invite people to give their lives to Christ.” (continue reading)

This article was originally published at thealabamabaptist.org.