Marty Privette

Baptismal Statement by Marty Privette
August 8, 2007

Being a Baptist is awesome! The idea of being able to chose when your ready to take on your religion and make your own choice of what you believe in is the whole idea behind beliefs. People sometimes get carried away in having a religion before they know what they believe in and the good thing about being Baptist is you chose to be baptized to your beliefs that happen to be shared by others.

Faith means different things to different people. Some people are born into their beliefs because their parents believe things forcing them to share those beliefs. Other people gain their faith or non faith by something that happens in their life. My faith is unique because I have a little of both.

I was born into Christianity by my whole family being part of this church. My grandfather Dan Cottrell has fixed every square inch of this church more than once. And my uncle Bill Ingold is the ugliest man ever to be an usher here at college park. My grandmother Mildred Cottrell is one of the most known people here and my aunt Diane Ingold is one of the beautiful voices of the choir. The only thing that would make me more born into my religion is if Michael was my dad.

But this isn’t why I’m a Christian. This isn’t why I believe in god. Faith isn’t something I could just be born into. I’m way too stubborn just to believe what the rest of my family believes. My faith mainly derives from something much less comedic. The experiences in my life have given me the proof needed to believe in god and Christianity. Some of these experiences I wasn’t even old enough to understand. When I didn’t know what it meant my mother was diagnosed with cancer. I had no idea the hit that my family was going to take. I didn’t know why she had to die because it couldn’t make sense to me, but god was with us the whole time watching and helping my family through the very tough time. When my mom died it gave me assurance that there is a heaven and she is right up there sitting with god watching over all of us right now.

For a while this was the only reason that I believed in god and that I was a Christian. After my mom past away coming to church on Sundays just didn’t happen as often and even got to the point that the only time I was here was for the Christmas service. It wasn’t knowingly choosing not to come to church, but simply fading out of the routine and slipping out of the pattern. I didn’t forget that I was a Christian but I made excuses for why it was okay not to come to church. This was a time that I thought I was being mature and making smart rational decisions about church and god knowing that I did believe in god because of heaven and death, but assuming that that was enough and that I was strong enough in my faith to not have to come to church.

Then god showed me in strange ways with past friendships and new relationships that church is important. Although coming every Sunday may not be the most important part, I don’t know everything and for that matter I don’t know much at all. Church is a place to learn and a place that isn’t just about me. He showed me that for as much as I learn from the people at church they also need me to help and teach them as well.

Now I know that there is more to being a Christian than heaven and death, but that it is also about following the teachings of Jesus and carrying out the work of god. For me this is what being a Christian means. I am a proud Christian and I feel like I recently have a much better grasp on what gods plan for me is. When I was being stubborn and naïve god spoke up and basically drilled it into my head making it obvious with important people and “coincidences”.

So now I’m ready to head into a new part of my life, where it’s publicly official that my beliefs and religion are a decision that I have made for myself. Where I know that I don’t understand everything but god and my friends and family will help me to learn more everyday. Where I can follow the word of God and I can carry out my decisions and actions based on his plan.

So with all this said, I know that I’m ready to be Dunked!