“Have you placed your faith in Jesus? Are you willing to go wherever God calls you to go and do whatever God calls you to do?”
These are the questions that Jack Frommeyer (12) and Molly Shaw (10) were asked on Feb. 23 when they were both baptized at the Commons Church in Okemos.
Frommeyer grew up in the Catholic Church, but recently switched his place of worship to the Commons Church. He decided to convert because he didn’t find a good fit within Catholicism.
“I never really resonated much with the Catholic Church,” Frommeyer said. “I didn’t learn much my whole time going through it, either. My sister brought me to the Commons, and it was a lot more lively, and I feel like I learned a lot more there.”
After a few visits to the Commons Church, Frommeyer decided to take the plunge and get baptized.
“I got baptized about a month ago,” Frommeyer said. “It was really cool. I got to share my testimony to the whole church, and then my sister, my best friend, got to baptize me.”
One of the core values of evangelism is spreading the word of God. As such, Frommeyer tries to be vocal about his beliefs.
“Usually, I am very open about [my faith],” Frommeyer said. “I express my belief in God to pretty much all my friends. Even if they’re not my friends, I still like to spread the word of God.”
Similarly to Frommeyer, Shaw was raised in the Episcopalian Church, which her family still attends. After the COVID-19 pandemic started, Shaw stopped regularly attending church. The decision to attend a service at the Commons Church around a year ago was immensely impactful for her.
“I walked in being deeply lost and knowing I needed a savior,” Shaw said. “I walked out knowing that Jesus loves me and that he died for my sins.”
At first, Shaw was hesitant to get baptized because she wasn’t sure how her parents would react.
“Before I got baptized, I was always really nervous to talk about it because I knew my parents wouldn’t be very happy,” Shaw said. “That’s because they [already] baptized me as a baby.”
Christian Student Union president Katie Flynn (12) has been a member of the Commons Church since 2020, shortly after the church first started. She was the person that baptized Shaw.
“I was mostly excited [about the baptism], but I was scared I was going to drop her.” Flynn said. “Luckily, that didn’t happen. I was a little nervous before about speaking and everything. I didn’t want to fumble anything.”
Like Frommeyer and Shaw, Flynn got baptized relatively recently. In some sects of Christianity, people are baptized at certain ages, like 12 days or eight years old. But for evangelicals like Flynn, you get baptized whenever you’re ready to proclaim your faith.
“Me and [two of my siblings] all got baptized at the Commons,” Flynn said. “In our church, we really make sure that it’s your own choice, whenever your heart is ready.”
Flynn decided to get baptized a few years ago after coming across a particularly meaningful verse in the Bible. She had been feeling very stressed out after the pandemic started and the line “God is sovereign” struck a chord with her.
“I’ve always heard of the word ‘sovereign’ but when I Googled it, it gave me all these definitions,” Flynn said. “One of these was ‘in control of everything.’ I don’t have to be that person in control. I don’t need to be the lord in my life, God can do it. It gave me so much peace.”
After her realization, Flynn started reading from her copy of the Bible every day and decided that she wanted to make a public profession of her faith, which led to her baptism. Flynn has no regrets.
“Putting my faith in Jesus has given me so much more confidence just to be myself, because I only care about an audience of one, God, and I know he always loves me no matter what,” Flynn said.
