She is told by her parents that the class will prepare her 'to join the church'. A woman who was brought up in the Presbyterian church marries a man who is a member of an independent Baptist church. These vignettes illustrate something of the extraordinary confusion about baptism in the church today. I was told by one individual who belongs to a church that adheres to adult baptism that they have 'commitment' or dedication services for infants, and baptize adults. He observed that even though Reformed churches baptize infants and have communicant classes, that the practises are basically the same, they just have different names.
Worshippers witness baptisms with some regularity, and generally baptisms are a happy moment.
Congregations are amused and intrigued by the various response of babies. But there really is little sense that the child is undergoing a profound initiation, a process of cleansing from sin, of entering into the death and resurrection of Christ, and of being received into a new community or family of faith. Few would understand that what is happening is a life-changing and transforming event. Instead, the congregation hears some words spoken, sees some water poured, makes some formal promises to nurture the child in faith, and the whole event is over in a matter of minutes. Nothing appears to have changed.