Saddleback Church Celebrates 20,000th Baptism

Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., celebrated the 20,000th baptism in its 25-year history in a quiet ceremony March 19, the Baptist Press reports. Pastor Rick Warren immersed 24-year-old Mario Soto after the 11:15 a.m. service. For Soto, who got engaged the night before, his decision to declare publicly his faith in Jesus Christ was an important step on the road toward marriage. After Amanda accepted his marriage proposal, he didn’t want to wait any longer to take the step of baptism. Warren said he was honored to mark the historic milestone. “It’s a terrific, wonderful experience,” he said. “You don’t forget your baptism. It’s an eternal memory.” Saddleback’s first baptism service took place in May 1980. “Ever since then we’ve used all kinds of facilities,” Warren said. “We’ve used lakes and rivers, ponds in the mountains, the ocean. And for a number of years when we didn’t have a building, we used Jacuzzis for Jesus -– anywhere we could find water.” Until 2004, Saddleback had averaged almost 1,300 baptisms a year going back to 1996. The past two years, however, the congregation has averaged more than 2,000 baptisms. "The cool thing is the stories behind [those] 20,000 lives," Warren said.