Family Dedication FAQs
Do I need to be a member of Mercy Gate Church to participate in a family dedication?
We prefer that parents/guardians involved in family dedications be formal church members but we do not require it. We recognize that parents may want to participate in family dedications before having the opportunity to participate in the membership classes. We hope that parents who desire to publicly receive care and accountability from the church would also seek to do so more formally through membership.
Can I participate in family dedications as a single parent?
If a parent or guardian is a follower of Jesus and can affirm the questions mentioned below, then absolutely. It gives us great pleasure to come along side of single parents and guardians to provide help and encouragement as they carry the unique burden of providing care and instruction to their children.
What if one of the spouses is not a follower of Jesus?
If one spouse is not a follower of Jesus we will allow him or her to participate. However as we ask the couple to affirm the questions, we will do so only to the spouse who can truly affirm those questions. We will graciously acknowledge the spouse’s support who is not a believer but we will not ask someone to affirm what they do not believe. Therefore we will, by name, ask only the believing spouse to affirm the questions.
Can we dedicate our child as an unmarried couple?
We cannot allow an unmarried couple who is intimately involved with one another to be involved in family dedications since the condition of the relationship stands overtly contrary to God’s purposes for marriage and the family. It would be our great delight to see that couple follow Christ in marriage or in a sexually abstinent relationship before joining the proceedings of a family dedication.
Can divorced parents participate in family dedications?
In most of these situations we would invite this family’s participation. However, this will be unique from situation to situation. There may be outstanding circumstances, which Scripture would require individuals to withhold from participation. That is if a parent’s present involvement in the family overtly contradicts the questions they are called to affirm.
What about infant baptism?
Our interpretation of Scripture is that baptism is reserved for those who come to faith in Jesus (more about baptism here). Jesus says that followers, or believers, of Jesus are to be baptized (Matt. 28:19-20). We do not do family dedications as a substitute for infant baptism. Rather, family dedications are to highlight our need for Jesus’ help in parenting our children to find their greatest hope not in what we have done as parents, nor in what they have done as our children, nor in what the church has done as a community, but in what Christ alone has done as our great Lord and Savior.
What actually takes place in a family dedication?
During a Sunday gathering we will set aside time for all participating families to stand at the front and publicly affirm the following questions:
“Do you, as parents and/or guardians of your children, commit before God and this church family…
to acknowledge your children as a gift and stewardship from your heavenly Father (Psalm 127:3-5)
to humbly love your children as Christ loves us and gave himself up for us (Ephesians 5:1, 6:4)
to discipline and instruct them in the way of Christ (Deuteronomy 6:1-7, Ephesians 6:4)
to humbly receive care and accountability from your brothers and sisters of this local church family (Hebrews 10:24-25)?”
The church will then be asked to affirm the following question:
“Do you, together with the church leadership, commit to equip and give care and accountability to our brothers and sisters as they seek to parent their children unto the Lord?”