The Captain’s Thirtieth “New Birth Day”

April 8, 1978 at Maplewood Baptist Church in North Richland Hills, Texas, I, John Douglas Chitty, was the only kid in Sunday School who couldn’t raise his hand when the teacher asked, “How many have been baptized?” After the worship service, I told my mother I wanted to be baptized, so she took me to the pastor–Dr. Charles McClure. The pastor took me to the altar and we knelt and talked for a few minutes.

Brother McClure asked, “Do you want to be baptized?”

I replied that I did.

Then he informed me, “There’s something that has to happen before you can be baptized.” Then he took me down the Romans Road. I believed that stuff. I’d heard it plenty every Sunday, I guess. Anyway, I understood it, and I believed it. So, Brother McClure led me in the “sinner’s prayer” by which I received Christ by faith.

The following Sunday, April 15th, tax day, of all days, I was baptized and admitted into the membership of the church.

Thirty years ago today.

To God alone be the glory.