Dunked

Yesterday I attended my friend JK (Janice)'s baptism at Southside Community Church. It was the second immersion baptism service I recall attending.
I drove to her house and ate breakfast with a variety of her friends and then waltzed down to the church. Services are held in an old house made church-like by the addition of a tower and steeple. The auditorium was lined with knotty pine and possibly 20x50 feet in size. The room was relatively well-filled, some substantial portion of the attendees being children bussed in from Corvallis (hmmm, maybe we should do that at Hopewell MC).
The atmosphere was casual and the two pastors played guitar and bass in the worship band. (Is casual dress appropriate for church? Does it promote diminished reverence or suggest a lack of respect for God? If church is important to us, it seems like we would want to dress nicely (or at least neatly) to attend -- on the other hand, clothes is not the focus of church and it is certainly not the most important preparation for attending.)

It was an edifying and interesting experience -- and Janice had the largest fan club of all the baptized people. AK & KR (both vet students), J&C C (at whose house we have our vet school Bible studies), and our beloved anatomy teacher TC were in attendance. JC gave the announcements at his church and then left to come to the baptism; Dr. TC was pressed for time but made it anyway. Janice also had a couple relatives and non-vet school friends there. The turn-out was impressive.