Sponsors for Baptism

For starters, we recognize that the formal use of sponsors is a church custom. God has neither commanded nor forbidden the practice. In Christian freedom, the practice of sponsors may or may not be utilized.

Older liturgies of Holy Baptism in our churches differentiated between witnesses and sponsors. Anyone could serve as a witness to the Baptism. It was different with sponsors. Since sponsors promised to remember the baptized child in prayer, remind the child of his/her Baptism, and offer counsel and assistance in seeing that the child was brought up in the Christian faith, in accordance with the teachings of the Lutheran Church (especially if the child’s parents died), individuals who served as sponsors were to be of the same faith and fellowship. That practice had concern that people not make promises that went against their consciences or religious convictions.

The Baptism liturgy in Christian Worship, the hymnal used in most WELS congregations, does not differentiate between witnesses or sponsors. It does not ask questions of people who are standing up with the parents. Instead, the Baptism liturgy asks the members of the congregation if they are willing to assist the parents in bringing up the child in the Christian faith. In a sense, there is a congregation of sponsors for the baptized child. It is possible that the WELS congregation you have in mind uses a different liturgy for Holy Baptism, but if it uses the one in our hymnal, there is not a recognition of sponsors. The individuals standing up with the parents are regarded as witnesses.

Parents might, on their own, designate individuals to have responsibilities as godparents or sponsors. That is entirely up to them.

Since all of this is a matter of Christian freedom, there is no specified number of individuals who might serve in these roles.