Every time we do baptisms, the question always comes….what’s with the horse trough?!?

That’s a fair question – I mean, it’s not every day you see an undergrad dunked in a device designed to keep a herd of horses well watered.  Let me give you two answers.

One.  Baptismal fonts are hard to come by on campus.  We could go to a pool but the band would get crazy nervous if we asked them to play on the diving board.  Horse troughs are portable and as it turns out the average undergrad fits quite nicely in one.  We dunked a basketball player in one once and the geometry of that one was challenging, but other than future pro ball players, we seem to be good.

Two – and, I promise you, this one is better.  It’s a little piece of our culture at The Gathering.  Every single student ever baptized through The Gathering has been in that trough.  It sits at my house all year long and it’s such a tangible reminder of the power of God.  Traditions like that are good in the life of a ministry or church.  You’ve got to find little things that add flavor, character and continuity to your ministry.  So, yeah – we probably could figure out another way of doing baptisms.  But there’s no chance.

I love that horse trough because I love what it reminds us all of – God is changing the campuses of DC!!