I had a fun time attending the first Bickertonite baptism in Utah. On a frigid 30 degree day, I witnessed a baptism in the Jordan River. I’ll share my thoughts on their church services. Check out our conversation…
If you would like to know more about this Restoration Church, check out these other episodes: https://gospeltangents.com/denominations/bickertonites/
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1st Bickertonite Baptism in Utah
GT 00:00 I’ve got a special for you today. About a week ago I attended a Bickertonite baptism. The official name of their church is The Church of Jesus Christ. They’re based in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. And I found out they had their first Utah baptism. So it was fun. Steve Pynakker was out here in Utah, and we got to attend. And, you know, especially since I had David Boice on recently. I’m not going to take over his 52 Churches in 52 Weeks, but I thought it would be fun, just to do one church in this weekend and just tell you my experiences at attending a Church of Jesus Christ baptism here in Utah. The first thing that you’ll notice was, it was very cold. I can’t remember if it was 30 or 32 degrees. Apparently, the Bickertonites believe that, just like Jesus, you should be baptized in an open body of water, {chuckling} even if it’s December. They joked about cutting holes in the ice to baptize somebody in the winter. Personally, if it was me, I would probably wait untill summer. {laughing} That’s very cold. But the baptism occurred in the Jordan River. And so, I thought I would show you a clip here of the first baptism in Utah, for the Bickertonite Church. The Church of Jesus Christ, here in the Jordan River. And here we go.
[Video of Reid being baptized in Jordan River.]
01:38 Jacob Reid Betts, having authority given me of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Ghost, amen. (Congregation singing.)
GT 02:17 So, the guy who got baptized, his name is Reid Betts and I’ve got a picture of him here. I just can’t believe [he got in cold water.] I’m not that brave. I’m not a polar bear at all. But yeah, it was really cool in the Jordan River. Obviously, that would have a little bit of significance because Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. But of course, this is Jordan river in Utah–Jordan river of Israel are not exactly the same. But it was very, very cold. So we did that. I think Reid lives in the Murray area or something because after the baptism, we got in our cars and we rode to the one of the libraries there in Salt Lake City, in Murray and did the confirmation service. One of the things that I find interesting about the Church of Jesus Christ, the Bickertonite Church, is they have amazing music and I guess this is the second time I’ve attended. I didn’t really talk about the first time, but I’ll kind of share some thoughts there. The first time I attended was in Florida with Steve Pynakker, also. And I swear they have the best piano players, because their music– I think I might even have a little clip here, I hope. (jazzy gospel music playing with the congregation singing)
GT 04:30 Anyway, that kind of gives you a little bit of taste of the music, and it’s just really fun and really, really cool. And so we sang songs for a long time while Reid was getting warm and drying off. {chuckling} Then he showed up. If you’ve ever been to an LDS baptism or confirmation service, in a lot of ways it is very, very similar. They give the laying on of hands and we give to the Holy Ghost and that sort of thing. One of the interesting things about the Bickertonite service is the fact that in every service that I’ve attended, and so at this baptism, for example, after, I believe it was after the confirmation, they made an announcement. And they do this in sacrament meeting, as well, at least I call it sacrament meeting. I’m not sure what they call it, but they will make an announcement and say, “Would anybody like to receive a blessing?” Oh, and I should also mention before I go, another difference with the Bickertonites, as opposed to say, the Community of Christ and the LDS Church, Community of Christ, LDS Church, we both baptize at the age of eight. Whereas with the Bickertonite church, they let the person decide. And they usually don’t let anybody be baptized until they’re at least 14, 15, 16. Twenty years old is probably more common. And so they want to make sure that the person makes that commitment themselves. And so they don’t baptize at the age of eight like the Community of Christ and the LDS Church do. That was also interesting.
GT 06:15 I remember when I attended in Florida, a member of the Bickertonite church was talking to me, and she says, “Oh, I attended an LDS baptism, and I was surprised you baptize people so young.” So, you know, it’s through these little interactions that you start to say, “Oh, there’s a little difference there that I wasn’t aware of.” Anyway, after the confirmation, they made a call and said, “Would anybody like to receive a blessing?” And so, about five people probably stood up. And the service was conducted by five evangelists. We would, in the LDS Church, we would call them Seventies. They’re in charge of missionary work. And I know the guy who baptized Reid was from San Diego. You know, I know there’s cold water in San Diego, but December in Utah, it’s got to be colder than the ocean in San Diego {laughing}. They said that they kind of sunk down in the mud a little bit, and it was hard to get out, there in the Jordan River. But he was from San Diego, there was a guy from Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and I think there was a guy from Virginia, as well. It’s interesting, because Reid was the first Utah baptism. I’m not sure if that’s ever, but they were advertising it. So, it might have been the first one ever. Apparently, they haven’t had a big missionary presence here in Utah.
GT 07:38 I know they have a congregation in Phoenix, Mesa area, somewhere around there. Oh, and of course, I guess I should also mention, their most famous member, or former member, I should say, is the rock star, Alice Cooper. Alice’s real name is Vincent Furnier. And his grandfather was the president of the Church of Jesus Christ. So I don’t know if they call him a prophet, but like a prophet. Alice actually grew up, believe it or not, with the Book of Mormon. {chuckling} And so I would encourage you, I’ve talked about this a couple times with John Hamer, and with Daniel Stone. He’s definitely the most famous Bickertonite. But actually, he’s really no longer a member of the church. I think he attends a Pentecostal church in Phoenix, now, or in Arizona somewhere.
GT 08:31 Anyway, so you know, people can come up with all sorts of maladies. You know, I’ve got a cold. Somebody had a headache. I remember a woman had just lost a baby, and so it was kind of a blessing of comfort. And so, maybe I didn’t pay as close of attention as I should have. I know, in the LDS Church, we do anointing with oil, and then a blessing. I couldn’t tell, there were some times where it sounded like they were saying something. I mean, basically, in the LDS Church, one person would anoint with oil. And then we would do a very short prayer that says, we’re anointing you with oil for the blessing and healing of the sick and that sort of thing. And then there will be a second blessing. Where as they would just do the standard blessing, and it kind of seemed like those were combined. Because they definitely had their oil out and they put it on. A couple times, I thought I heard a few little words, but they were kind of quiet. And then it sounded like just a standard blessing. So, I wasn’t sure if there were two prayers there or one, but it was usually the same person who did both. Maybe somebody from that church can clarify that for me. There were a couple of times where I was like, “Oh, are they saying the anointing part first, and then the blessing?” I’m not sure. Anyway, that was very cool. They do that at every service. And so then we sang a lot of songs.
GT 10:08 One of the interesting things about the Bickertonite services is they don’t have a program. And so, anybody can speak, I guess. It was kind of led by the evangelists, the Seventies. They were kind of in charge, but they don’t have a written program. They direct the things by the Spirit. I have heard that they do speak in tongues in the Bickertonite church. And I’ve yet to see that. I’m bummed. That didn’t happen while I was there. Steve (Pynakker) has seen it happen a couple of times I guess, in Florida, it’s happened a few times. At the end of the confirmation service, it was kind of interesting, there were probably about 50 people there, I would say. Apparently, there was a husband and wife from Idaho Falls that were there. So, they’ve got two people, or maybe it’s a family, I’m not sure, up in Idaho Falls. And then there’s another member here in Salt Lake that was previously a member, apparently. And so now they’ve got, I guess, two members, here in Salt Lake. At the end of the confirmation meeting on Saturday, we all got in a big circle, all 50 of us or whatever, a little prayer circle. And were led in prayer. That was kind of interesting, we definitely don’t see that in LDS Church services. Then on Sunday, they had a service, I guess they had three. So there were five seventies here, three of them went to Idaho Falls for those to lead a service in Idaho. And then two of them stayed here. And they led a Sunday school. It was at the Marriott Hotel in Murray, just in one of the conference rooms there. And it was very similar to the service I saw in Florida. And basically, they had Sunday school for about 45 minutes, a very typical lesson. They taught out of the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Interesting thing is they do not accept the Doctrine and Covenants as Scripture. So, we didn’t hear anything out of D&C there, but definitely a lot of Bible, Book of Mormon verses that many LDS would be very familiar with. Then there’s a little 15 minute break, and then they had a sermon. Alfonso, I’m trying to remember what his last name was, he gave the sermon. And then, pretty much every week, they have basically what LDS would call testimony meeting. Anybody can get up and basically bear their testimony and talk about God and how God has been in their life and that sort of thing.
GT 10:24 And then at the end of that meeting, once again, they ask if there’s anyone who would like to receive a blessing, and you don’t have to be a member of their church to do that. And so once again, five or so people, I would say, got up and they did the blessing again. So, it was a lot of fun. I still want to see speaking in tongues one of these times. Now that they’ve got two members here in Utah and two in Idaho, they said they’re going to try to come out here once a quarter or something. Because I did say, (I didn’t know about the other member.) And I was like, “How do you have a congregation of one? Is that zoom?” And I think it’s going to be [Zoom] primarily, but they’re going to try to get out here to Utah and so that’d be cool. So I’m definitely looking forward to that. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot more Bickertonite friends, I’ve got a lot of Community of Christ friends. Of course, lots of LDS friends. And so just wanted to share kind of my thoughts. And, show some pictures of these cool, I would say, Mormon cousins, Restoration cousins, maybe. They don’t call themselves Mormons. So, it was super fun. You know, I’m thinking about doing a little thing like this, maybe not necessarily about, well, maybe about churches, but maybe, visiting places like Mountain Meadows and different church history sites. If that’s something that would be interesting to you, please let me know in the comments. And maybe we’ll make this a feature once in a while, just to break up some of the interviews. Let me know. Thanks again for listening. And tomorrow, or the next day we will have George Potter to talk about the Book of Mormon.
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Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission
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