SOMERSET, Ky. (KT) — A baptismal service in a creek is not unusual these days. But a baptism requiring six people to make it happen is far from ordinary.
Why did it require so many?
The man who had made a profession of faith and wanted to immediately follow in baptism had a unique situation — he had an ankle bracelet that his probation officer said must not get wet.
Jordan Burks, pastor of Barnesburg Baptist Church in Somerset, was determined not to let the ankle bracelet keep the man from being obedient in the ordinance of baptism.
“I didn’t want to tell him to wait … I didn’t want to turn him away,” Burks recalls. His plea was “for God to make a way.”
He enlisted the help of his brother, Chance Sweet, co-director of Leap of Faith, a recovery ministry, and that led to six people gathering around the new believer to help him keep his ankles dry as he went into Short Creek to be baptized.
A video of that May 18 service has drawn attention far beyond Pulaski County. Shared on X (formerly Twitter), it has been viewed more than 302,000 times and has had 365 reposts. The video shows the man being baptized while two men each hold up a leg so his ankles remain dry. “We had six people who helped him into the water and got around him,” Burks said. Wording on the video states: “Ankle bracelets are no match for Jesus.” Wording below the creek scene says: “This is why your circle matters! Get you some friends that’ll lower you down to Jesus.”
The circumstances leading to the man’s conversion and baptism relate to physical food and spiritual food. It was physical food that drew the man to a Saturday afternoon rally. What he found was spiritual food that lasts for eternity.
“We had a rally at church, with a car show and bike show, and this gentleman came because of the hot dogs and chili. The young man — who was in a sober living home — got up and came to church just to eat. The preacher got up and preached the gospel, and the man gave his heart and life to the Lord,” Burks said.
Barnesburg Baptist partners with Leap of Faith ministries to sponsor one of the biggest recovery ministries in the county. “God is using a little old church on Barnesburg Road — and we give God the glory.”
The man who preached that day had left the area, so Burks performed the baptism — along with help from volunteers to keep the man’s ankles dry.
“The Lord has used this in a mighty way,” Burks said, noting the recovery ministry has been a springboard for increased church attendance. “We are averaging 200-215 people on Sunday morning because it flows over from Saturday until Sunday. It has exploded with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”
This past Sunday Burks baptized five people, following four baptisms the week before, three before that and 11 on a Saturday the previous week.
“We are blessed,” he said. Referencing the movie “Field of Dreams,” Burks drew a spiritual analogy — if you build the kingdom and preach the truth, they will come. “I am going to preach the truth, so apparently people like it.”