As a child and teenager, me and my family attended Southern Baptist churches. The Sunday morning services we attended always had a general format or agenda that looked something like this:

1. A welcoming of regular attendees and guests
2. 20 minutes of singing/worship (with choir and singing from hymnals...the books placed in the pews)
3. A "special music" time. Basically, one of the better vocalists from the choir would do a solo and the song he/she sang had something to do with the topic of the sermon to be taught that morning.
4. Then, the pastor (minister) would come up and "preach" from a large pulpit that looked sort of like a large lecturn that you see in some classrooms at universities (except this one would have a big cross on it).
5. Finally, immediately following the message from the pastor, there would be an "invitation." This is where the pastor encourages those who would like to pray to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior to come to the front of the room where he is standing, which was usually off the stage and in front of the pulpit. This is a time that Baptists sometimes also call "doing business with God."

Well, I was taught throughout my life that being a "Christian" was more than just attending church. Hence the old saying, "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car." I was taught by Sunday school teachers (the class you attend before "big church" with the pastor) that if you pray to receive Christ you will become a "born again Christian." This "born again" process or decision then follows with baptism, which is symbolic of a burial (death to sin--going under water) and a "raising to new life" (spiritual life--cleansed, up out of the water).

So, a natural question is, where does this term "born again" come from? Is it just a term the Baptists made up or does it come from some Protestant manual or theologian? Well, the answer is that it comes from God's Word, the Bible. The "born again" phrase was actually quoted by Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John, the third chapter, verses 5-8. It says, "Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

This "born again" process happens when we place our faith in Christ's sacrifice for our sins on the cross. It's a supernatural act of God, on our behalf, to save us from our sin. It is God who places His righteousness (His Spirit) on us at the moment we confess that we're sinful, that we need Him, and we tell Him we want to receive Him into our heart. The apostle Paul explains this rebirth in Romans 8:9-11: "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you."

Mark Cahill, a full time evangelist, quoted this statistic once, "10 out of 10 people die. Have you ever thought about where you're going to spend eternity?"
I had the opportunity this past week to pray with someone who wanted to receive Christ as her Savior. All she did was come to God (in prayer), ask for forgiveness for her sins, placed her faith in what Christ did on the cross, and she then asked God to take control of her life. Is she "born again?" In terms of what Scripture says, yes! Jesus stated, "I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well...Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father." (John 14:6-9