Favorite products for doing baptisms in a portable church.
1. A horse trough.
This is one of the most common ways we see churches do baptism. The good things about them is that you can dress them up a little with some graphics, and you can pretty much buy them at any farm and feed company for cheap, around $85. The negative of this product is that they are not supper pretty (even with graphics). They also are not portable and can take up a lot of storage room. The can get bent or crushed, and so you have to be careful with it.
2. An inflatable baptismal pool / inflatable hot tub is another commonly used option.
The fact that it is easy to store, folds down, relatively inexpensive at stores like Walmart or Amazon, around $350 are the pros. An inflatable baptismal pool is also great for volunteer set up because of how easy they are. However, the cons, include that it can take 12-24 hours for the water to heat up, and they can pop if caught on something sharp.
3. Fiberglass baptismal tank.
Who doesn’t love fiberglass? It’s great because it is specifically built for church baptism, so it has capacity and functionality with stairs on the inside and outside. You can put graphics on it and we can help with a solution to make it portable and storage friendly. The downside is that the cost is around $3,750.
4. Our last product is Portable Baptistery.
This is a product that is designed and built specifically for portable churches. It has quick set up and tear down and can fit nicely in one of our cases. The downside is the price tag which comes in around $2,600 (as of 2019).
Other tips on how to do baptism well.
- There is a great product called Heavenly Heater that will heat up the water in your baptism in about an hour. Making sure the water is warm is so important, nobody likes to get in cold water. Feel free to call us to get more information on this product.
- Towels galore! One of our churches had the amazing idea to partner with a local hotel and order a bunch of towels with their order to get a good deal. You can use them for people to dry off but also to make a trail to protect the floor of the facility you are in. It also helps minimize slips and will take care of spills from your baptism. There is also a product called the Waterhog Rug which is meant to absorb water but looks more professional.
- Do baptisms in your hallway and broadcast it to your auditorium if you can’t do them from your stage. Prerecorded baptisms that you show during your service is another option. And finally, another option is to move your whole service to a nearby lake and put up speakers and turn it into a whole event. This is a great way to engage your community as well. You could do it at a members pool depending on the size of your church, a community center, or a high school gym. Or for our California churches, do it at the beach! Portable churches shouldn’t feel like just because they are portable they can’t create a great baptism experience.
- One last tip, connect with other portable churches in your area and consider splitting the cost of a baptismal. You could share it and coordinate using it and then it would save you money in the end.
Check out this page to find ideas on what other churches are doing in portable spaces. Under the photos, you’ll see tons of ideas and concepts as to what you can do with portability.
