The Pastor’s Piece – Pastor Kevin Cernek, FCFI Chaplain

FCFI

January 16, 2026

You’re probably not thinking about baptism right now, but we had one this week so I thought I’d bring it up. Actually, we have them all the time. When I first came to Martintown, a gentleman from our church asked if he could be baptized during a special evening service. Since we most generally baptize by immersion, and since we don’t have an indoor baptismal, I thought we’d wait till summer when we could do it outside. He didn’t want to wait (it was winter) and he wanted to have it at our church.

So I did what any good problem-solver would do – I went to our local Farmer Feed Store and told the proprietor my dilemma. We put our heads together while munching on a handful of peanuts. “We can fix that,” he said, “I have a 200 gallon galvanized cow tank you can use. Just bring it back when you’re done.”

The guy being baptized was excited. He invited all his friends from work and that night the church was packed. I filled the tank the day before in order to give the water a chance to reach room temperature before he went under. My wife beautified the tank by decorating it with lace and she floated flower petals on the surface of the water. That night he stood in the tank before the baptism and gave a rousing testimony of how God had saved him from alcoholism and a life of ruin and lifted him up from the miry clay and placed his feet on solid ground. Now he had purpose and meaning in life. His fellow comrades listened intently as he spoke. They knew something had changed in him, and up till now they didn’t know what. Now they saw first-hand the power of God to change this man’s heart.

Since then, we’ve had other baptisms. We even bought the cow tank so we didn’t have to borrow it all the time. We’ve baptized in the church and outside the church. One time I filled the tank with water and put two stock tank heaters in it overnight to warm the water. The next morning the water was too hot to touch. So we added bags of ice. Bags and bags of ice went into that water to cool it down. One of the men being baptized witnessed us adding ice and was confused thinking we must have had some kind of weird, ice water ritual that went with our baptisms. He was very happy when he stepped into warm water.

We’ve baptized in state parks, private lakes, and on private farms. At one of our baptisms at a state park, we went out into the water in the public swimming area. It was shallow for a long way out. When we finally got into water deep enough, there was about 75 yards between us and the shoreline. As the people in the water shared their testimonies, those on shore could hear every word because their voices reflected off the water and were carried in – just like in Bible times when Jesus stood in a boat and preached to the masses.

Our most popular baptism services have been when we baptize in the Pecatonica River. There’s a little boat landing on our church property bordering the river. A couple years ago, I backed my truck up to the edge of the water, tied a rope to the trailer hitch, and while holding firmly to the rope, I carefully stepped out into the water. There is enough back-water near the bank to keep us out of the direct current, yet is deep enough to baptize in. We posted those services on social media (as we do all our services) and had thousands of views more than usual. I guess baptisms in the river bring out the curiosity in people.

One time a lady showed up at our house and after expressing her faith in Jesus, insisted I baptize her on the spot. Not wanting to not dampen such enthusiasm, I took her over to the kitchen sink and she received a good dousing of tap-water on top of her head, confirming her faith in Jesus.

I’ve baptized people in the Atlantic Ocean and the most recent baptism was last week in the Gulf of America off the coast of Florida. A family in our church was going on vacation and asked if we could meet them in Florida because their three sons asked if they could be baptized in the ocean, like their dad was. Of course, that worked fine for us. We don’t need a reason to go to Florida. It was a beautiful day of sunshine and waves and the Spirit of God was moving in their hearts and ours.

Now it’s back to the frozen tundra. But we have other things on our mind today – a sleepover with the grandkids.

May God bless your coming and going. To Him be the glory!

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin)