We live in a day of baptismal amnesia. The church has been divided in recent years over preferred styles of worship; however Gordon Lathrop offers a model for the practice of the baptismal ordo that will strengthen our liturgy and help us remember who we are. Through covenantal relationship, God reaches out and forms a people at worship. Baptism in the Reformed tradition incorporates worshipers into the covenant community of the church and binds them together in mutual nurture and support for one another. Through living the life of faith together, baptism calls people to a changed life in service to the outsider. Through the ancient practice of mystagogy, and the current practice of the liturgy, worshipers will be strengthened in their baptismal identity. Ethnographic studies, participant observation, and interviews will lead to a clearer understanding of one congregation's baptismal memory. This research will help others who struggle with the worship wars debate as to how to help a congregation be formed into a covenant community while strengthening the life of its worship. The results will be evaluated through interviews and participant observation.
