What’s on the Other Hand? Five Practices Beyond Baptism
In a previous century, a well‑known Disciples evangelist would teach people the way of salvation using a five‑finger exercise. Holding up one hand, he named the gifts God has given us on the way to the water: hearing, faith, repentance, baptism, and the Holy Spirit.
Lately I’ve been wondering: what’s on the other hand? If the first five‑finger exercise is what guides us into the baptismal waters, what gifts or Christian practices might we name on the other five fingers to describe how the Christian life shows up on the other side of baptism?
I do not claim this as the list, only as my list. I am genuinely curious what your “other‑handed” five‑finger exercise might include. For now, here are five practices that keep coming to mind for me:
Gratitude
Psalm 103 begins, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all God’s benefits.” As Christians mature, I think we sometimes forget that we are also the recipients of the good news we proclaim. The grace, presence, reassurance, and strength we remind others they receive through faith are also ours. On the other hand, I hope to remind myself and others to rest in the goodness and good news we have from God.
Hospitality
There is an intimate connection between our love for God and our love of neighbor. I’m enamored with a few Latin phrases that point to Christian theological commitments. Most recently, it’s been the two‑word doctrine capax Dei—the human capacity for God, or for engaging the divine. I do wonder if there is not also a concomitant capax hominum—a capacity to know and receive one another, to care for and to relate to one another.
Discernment
Discernment comes from knowing, naming, and narrating the work of God in our lives. Certainly it involves knowing what Scripture has to say. Naming comes when we bring the biblical stories close enough that our own realities are defined by scriptural narratives and teaching. Sometimes it is as simple as suggesting that we are in an “Esther” moment, or that an argument is a “meat‑sacrificed‑to‑idols” argument. More broadly, it is learning to speak of our realities in terms of Creation, Covenant, Christ, Church, and Consummation (to borrow M. Eugene Boring’s five‑finger exercise). Baptized people learn, together, to say: this is the good work God has started in us, and these are the ways God is bringing it to completion (Philippians 1:6).
Stewardship
God has entrusted resources to us—money, time, energy, attention, and life in general. In stewardship, we faithfully direct those resources so that we are participating in God’s work in the world. Instead of asking only, “How do we keep this going?” stewardship asks, “How do we align what we have so that it moves in union with God’s mission and purposes?”
Ministry
Ministry is not first a career (even though it has been my career for over 30 years); ministry is the work God has equipped and given to the whole Church. God gives every baptized person some share in Christ’s ministry of teaching, healing, reconciliation, and witness. We are given the chance to work with God and, very often, to have a front‑row seat to what God is doing in people’s lives.
I know this is not a complete picture of Christian life. I have not said anything here about sabbath rest, community, worship, prayer, Bible study, advocacy for justice, or witness and testimony, all of which surely belong in the conversation. This “other hand” is meant as a discussion starter, not a final word.
So I’ll end with a question: If you were to hold up your own hand and name five practices that describe life on the far side of baptism, what would be on your fingers?