On Pentecost Sunday, the largest synchronized baptism in the history of the United States took place in the state of California, with 12,000 individuals getting dunked in order to identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The pastor who started the movement that led to this movement, which is called Baptize California, recently revealed that he has an even bigger vision of taking this across the country and even the world. Now that’s the kind of ambition we as believers should be cultivating.
There’s no greater cause in the world than expanding the Kingdom of God. With establishing the kingdom, baptizing believers, and making disciples comes the founding of all sorts of ministries that are designed to help reach out to the world and allow the church to be the hands and feet of Jesus who desires to, through His people, meet the needs of the suffering and needy.
“I think that when God wants to do something, he kind of creates the right atmosphere and ecosystem for it to happen,” Pastor Mark Francey of Oceans Church in Irvine, California, the founder of the baptism movement with his wife, Rachelle, went on to say during an interview with The Christian Post.
Francey, who founded his church five years ago, said he got a vision from God to promote baptism to help the local church about two years ago while praying.
Acting on this vision, Francey said he and his church organized an event called Baptize Southern California last year, and nearly 4,200 people were baptized. In 2024, the church decided to go statewide with the baptism movement. And anchored by a flagship baptism site at the popular Huntington Beach, they reaped richly.
“I don’t know where God wants us to go. But we’re kind of prepared for whatever He wants us to do,” Francey said during the conversation with CP.
“Ultimately, our desire is to make the Day of Pentecost the day that Christendom celebrates water baptism,” he continued. “I think it kind of happens organically every once in a while, but the Book of Acts was obviously started with a prayer meeting that led to bold preaching in the public square, that led to a public declaration of faith that 3,000 believed, and then immediately, 3000 were baptized.”
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Pastor Francey then stated that the success the ministry has been enjoying has been grounded in ecumenism as many local churches from all over California have decide to join in the effort as the sacrament of baptism is one that they all agree with.
“It wasn’t just one denomination. It wasn’t just one part of the body of Christ. We had the largest Baptist churches in the state. Churches like Sandals, … a lot of the big Baptist churches in the state were all a part of [Sunday] with some of the largest Evangelical churches, Pentecostal churches, charismatic churches, even at the Presbyterian Calvary Chapel Vineyard,” Francey explained. “To see it kind of cross a denominational threshold, … I think that what God blesses is unity, and when the church works together.”
There might be a bit of concern about what happens to those who are baptized after the event. Francey said that there is follow-up conducted after the events. Each person who is baptized are provided with resources that feature an online database that contains information to help connect them with local church bodies they can join with.
“This isn’t like a parachurch organization that’s going to kind of blow in and blow out, just get a crowd and just trying to get them (people) hyped. Our heart was to unite the local church, to work together, to really reach our world, and then to build a kingdom by connecting all of these people that are making a decision to get connected to the local church,” Francey said concerning discipleship after baptism. “For us, the win isn’t the count of how many got baptized, really, it’s going to be how that translates into how we are getting people connected to the local church.”
Let’s hope Pastor Francey and his mission are blessed by Christ and more disciples for the Kingdom of God are made.