At Jubilee, we only baptise people who are believers – those who have made a confession of faith.

Baptism does not make these three perfect and going into the water isn’t going to make them perfect – but being baptised is being obedient. When he preached on the day of Pentecost, Peter said “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

We believe that you repent and your baptism is a response to that and that God will then open your life. It is about obedience. There’s nothing special about the water.

We also baptise by immersion, because we believe it represents is as you go down into the water, you are being recognised with Jesus’ death, and as you are raised back up you are coming into your new life raised in Christ. That’s what we do and why we do it.

Tracy Hawkins

When I was seven years old, I was playing on the landing at the top of the stairs when I tripped and fell head over heels down the stairs.

Instead of feeling the tumble down, I felt I was watching the whole thing from above. I was so confused because I felt my body was not me. I was more than flesh and bone; I was spirit too.

I got a terrible fright. I didn’t understand what had just happened and I didn’t tell anyone for a long time, because I didn’t understand it myself, but I knew that I was more than just a body – I was a spirit living in a human body.

As time went by I put the whole thing to the back of my mind.

My parents never went to church, but I loved the Bible stories from school. I even tried going to church on my own but never felt included, so I stopped going.

Three years ago, my life spiralled out of control. I had my own business, my own house, a partner of 30 years, 10 of which had been just as friends. I sold my house and my business and my partner and I split up. This was the worse period of my whole life. Without going into detail, I lost everything apart from money, which all I did was worry about.

I started looking at horoscopes and tarot cards – looking for something but I didn’t know what. One day I came across a story on YouTube about a near-death experience. I was fascinated and I watched quite a few of these videos, all of which were different but quite similar – all of them claimed to have met Jesus and were al changed by their experience.

It suddenly came to me about my out of body experience when I was a child, it dawned on me that Jesus was real, like I’d hoped all along, and He was just waiting for me to realise it.

So although I went through the most awful time of my life, where it led me was worth every painful step.

I walked through hell, but Jesus was waiting for me on the other side.

If I hadn’t have lost everything and been through the traumatic time, I would never have been looking and would never have found Jesus. So I am forever grateful that He got my attention.

So the reason why I am being baptised today is my promise to Jesus that I am His forever.

Benjy Greenhalgh

I’ve grown up in a Christian family and in this church and all my life I’ve always said that I know that God exists but I’ve never really followed Him.

I’ve known He’s there but I’ve never tried to have a relationship with Him.

I went to New Day and they’d be like “come  up if you want to give your life to God” and I’d go up and then I’d come home after New Day and I’d read the Bible for like three days and then that would be that.

So I’ve always said I’m a Christian.

But then recently I was speaking to a man in Zambia, possibly to stay with him and his family, and he asked me to say my testimony to him.

I kind of said “I’m not baptised, but I’ve always gone to church and I know that God exists” and at the time he was like ok, yeah, cool. But then afterwards he said to my parents that he didn’t believe I’m a Christian. I was like “No he’s wrong, I know best, I am a Christian” but it kind of made me think maybe I wasn’t, that maybe I was thinking about this wrong.

It was on my mind getting baptised and then we went to the Franklin Graham tour in Liverpool and he said at the end “Come up if you want to give your life to Jesus” and I thought “No it’s fine, I don’t need to do it now, I’ll talk to Dave another time” but God was like “No – you’re going up and you’re really going to mean it this time.”

So I went up and then Chris came and spoke to me which was really helpful. That was the point at which I thought “No I actually want to do this, I actually want to give my life to Jesus.”

I’m getting baptised today because I want to declare my faith properly and I want to actually have a relationship with God.

Hannah Robertson

Like Benjy, I’ve grown up in this church and I’ve learned what it means to have that faith and be in a relationship with God rather than it be a religion to learn and to follow along with.

I went to conferences like New Day and Devoted and I think it was at Devoted that I committed myself to giving my life to God, but I’d never really fully understood the importance of that until recently. The conferences encouraged me to look deeper into what it means to be a Christian and what it means to live my life with boldness and with patience in the communities I’m put in.

I took A level Religious Studies, which was challenging to my faith because we looked at different views which might go against what I believe in. But through that I kept my faith in God and it strengthened my belief in Him because I realised that, even though there are things that might go against it, it’s a relationship with God that is deeper than facts.

I wanted to read from Romans 6.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

I’m getting baptised today to publicly accept God and fully accept that Jesus died for our sins.