Christian Pure

Why Do Methodists Sprinkle? Sprinkling vs Immersion in Methodist Baptism

Christian Pure Team

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Summary

  • The United Methodist Church accepts sprinkling, pouring and immersion, and its glossary says “the most common method in recent years has been sprinkling.”
  • Methodists teach that “it is God’s grace that makes the sacrament whole,” so the amount of water does not decide whether a baptism is valid.
  • Any Methodist may ask to be immersed, and the Global Methodist and African Methodist Episcopal churches also allow all three methods.
  • Sprinkling is aspersion, pouring is affusion and immersion is dipping; affusion does not mean sprinkling.
  • John Wesley baptized an eleven-day-old girl by immersion in Georgia in 1736, but his 1784 service book for American Methodists let ministers “dip it in the Water, or sprinkle it therewith.”
  • Methodists do not rebaptize anyone baptized with water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, whatever the method; instead they offer a reaffirmation of baptismal vows, with the words “Remember your baptism and be thankful.”

United Methodists usually sprinkle. Their church teaches that God’s grace, not the amount of water, makes a baptism, and it baptizes babies at a font inside the church, where a little water is enough. It accepts sprinkling, pouring and immersion as equally valid, and any member may ask to be immersed. What it will not do is baptize anyone twice. The church’s own glossary says that “a candidate for Holy Baptism or his sponsors may choose any of the traditional…

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Bibliography (Click to show)
  • Scripture quotations are from the King James Version, via BibleGateway: Matthew 28:19; Romans 6:3–4; Colossians 2:12; Ezekiel 36:25; Hebrews 10:22; Acts 16:33. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+6%3A3-4&version=KJV
  • The United Methodist Church. By Water and the Spirit: A United Methodist Understanding of Baptism (adopted by the 1996 General Conference). https://www.umc.org/en/content/by-water-and-the-spirit-a-united-methodist-understanding-of-baptism
  • The United Methodist Church. “Ask The UMC: What do I need to know about baptism in The UMC?” https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-what-do-i-need-to-know-about-baptism-in-the-united-methodist-church
  • The United Methodist Church. “Glossary: baptism.” https://www.umc.org/en/content/glossary-baptism
  • The United Methodist Church. “5 ways to remember your baptism.” https://www.umc.org/en/content/5-ways-to-remember-your-baptism
  • Taylor Burton-Edwards, General Board of Discipleship. “How should water be used when baptism is being reaffirmed?” https://www.umc.org/en/content/how-should-water-be-used-when-baptism-is-being-reaffirmed
  • The United Methodist Church. The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church, Article XVII, “Of Baptism.” https://www.umc.org/en/content/articles-of-religion
  • Global Methodist Church. 2024 Book of Doctrines and Discipline, ¶ 414–415. https://storage2.snappages.site/ZW35F3/assets/files/2024-Book-of-Doctrines-Discipline-FINAL–68.pdf
  • James A. Keeton Jr. “Take Me to the Water: Lessons in Christian Baptism.” The Christian Recorder, 25 February 2023. https://www.thechristianrecorder.com/articles/take-me-to-the-water-lessons-in-christian-baptism
  • James A. Keeton Jr. “Why We Don’t Re-baptize.” The Christian Recorder, 17 April 2026 (quoting the AME Doctrine and Discipline, 2024). https://www.thechristianrecorder.com/articles/why-we-dont-re-baptize/
  • The Methodist Church in Britain. “What is Baptism?” https://www.methodist.org.uk/exploring-faith/answers-to-questions/life-events/what-is-baptism/
  • John Wesley. The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, vol. 1 (Everyman’s Library), entries for 21 February and 5 May 1736 and the Savannah grand jury’s presentments of 1737. https://archive.org/details/journalofrevjohn01wesl_0
  • John Wesley. A Treatise on Baptism (dated 11 November 1756), in the 1871 reprint edited by H. W. Holden. https://wesleyscholar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Tracts-on-Baptism-Godparents-1756-1752-reprint.pdf
  • John Wesley (ed.). The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America (London, 1784): Public Baptism of Infants; Baptism of Such as Are of Riper Years. https://archive.org/details/amernorfm00wesl
  • Church of England. The Book of Common Prayer (1662), The Ministration of Public Baptism of Infants. https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/public-baptism-infants
  • The Didache, chapter 7, translated by J. B. Lightfoot (The Apostolic Fathers, 1891). https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/didache-lightfoot.html
  • William Fanning. “Baptism.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 2 (1907). https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02258b.htm
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1239. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3J.HTM
  • The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), chapter 28.3. Orthodox Presbyterian Church. https://www.opc.org/wcf.html
  • Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. “The Sacramental Life of the Orthodox Church.” https://www.goarch.org/-/the-sacramental-life-of-the-orthodox-church
  • Southern Baptist Convention. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Article VII. https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/
  • Dictionary.com. “Affusion” and “Aspersion.” https://www.dictionary.com/browse/affusion ; https://www.dictionary.com/browse/aspersion

Response

  1. kenneth d Mckissack Avatar
    kenneth d Mckissack

    Unless I missed it, I see no Bible scripture reference as to the sprinkle form of baptism.

    Reply

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