A North Carolina Christian School administrator says parents are “extending grace” after more than 100 students were baptized without their consent. Administrators at Northwood Temple Academy(NTA) in Fayetteville, NC said students spontaneously volunteered to be baptized after attending the school’s Spiritual Emphasis event, but they were not expecting the controversy that followed
“We certainly weren’t expecting the firestorm to come from this,” Renee McLamb, Northwood Head of School told CBN News. “Honestly, the whole faculty and staff of middle school and high school were overwhelmed. We’ve had great outpouring of the Lord on our students before but never where it seemed like the line would never stop. They just kept coming to the stage.”
Only two middle school students and one high school student were scheduled to take part in a baptism on September 1, but at the end of the chapel service, over 100 others joined.
But a small group of parents hit back at the school saying administrators were out of line for allowing kids to get baptized without them being present.
McLamb sent a letter to families explaining what happened, The Fayetteville Observer reports.
“The Spirit of the Lord moved and the invitation to accept the Lord and be baptized was given and the students just began to respond to the presence of the Lord,” she wrote.
“I do understand that parents would desire to be a part of something so wonderful happening in the lives of their children, and so I apologize that we did not take that into consideration in that moment,” McLamb said. “I pray that at the end of the day we will all rejoice because God truly did a work in the lives of our students.”
The letter adds that the school typically notifies parents and invites them to baptism and “it was not the intention of any faculty member to do anything behind a parent’s back or in any kind of secret way.”
McLamb told CBN News the parents were not upset about their children giving their life to Christ, but rather that they missed the opportunity to be a part of it.
“Ultimately at the end of the day, I love what one of the parents said who was upset… ‘We know your heart and we want to extend grace in this circumstance’. That’s what the body of Christ does. We extend grace,” she said. “Honestly, it was a sweet, sweet, sweet move of the Lord.”
“I think it is extremely significant, not so much in light of the pressures of culture right now, but all the statistics that are coming out right now from mental health institutions that because of the pandemic self-harm is on the rise, suicide rate among teens is at an all time high,” she shared. “So here we are having a time at school where…there can still be joy in the midst…because Jesus is our peace.”