A megachurch has seen 589 baptisms across all its sites in the course of one weekend.
Elevation Church in America, which came from the Southern Baptist Convention and from which Elevation Worship arose, has about 23 sites and over 25,000 people - many of whom will already be baptised. In the run up to Sunday 8th August it encouraged people to think about committing their lives to Christ and declaring that publicly through baptism.
The church, whose pastor is Steven Furtick, posted about what baptism symbolises on social media and encouraged those who were ready to sign up online to get baptised on Sunday.
They wrote: "Baptism is a public declaration of an inward decision to follow Jesus, and if you've never taken that step of faith, we'd love to celebrate with you this weekend."
589 people stepped forward to do so, across the physical locations, with videos showing one person after another stepping into the baptism pool and getting dunked as part of their 'Raised to Life' weekend.
One man, Chris, got baptised, with the church sharing his story on Instagram:
"Feeling purposeless and not knowing how to change, he thought he'd give church a try and started watching Elevation online. The messages helped Chris understand God's love for him in his head and feel God's love for him in his heart, and Chris accepted Jesus as his Saviour!
"He's been part of our church family for a while now at Elevation Ballantyne, where a few months ago he started serving on the volunteer team that sets up the baptism tank. It was through this that Chris realised he wanted to take that step of faith for himself, and this past weekend we celebrated his baptism alongside 588 others across our locations!
"We're so happy for what God is doing through you, Chris, and believing the best is yet to come."
