Many people of Christian faith experience the tradition of baptism at some point in their lives. Though the experience is special in all cases, not many who have been baptized can say their experience was part of a clergy family tradition.

For Kaylee Mae Kifer, the 5-month-old daughter of Stacey and Pastor Ben Kifer of Grace Lutheran Church, her baptism was especially significant. Her grandmother, Marcia Kifer, who is also a Lutheran pastor, carried out Kaylee’s baptism, according to Ben Kifer.

Pastor Marcia Kifer was ordained into the Lutheran Church in 1982, the same year Ben Kifer was born. Ben Kifer was baptized in 1983 by his maternal grandfather, who was a Lutheran pastor, as well.

Now the pastor of a cluster of four churches in southern Texas. Marcia Kifer visited Washington especially for her granddaughter’s baptism, where she also preached and led the service, Ben Kifer said.

“I think it’s just kind of a unique thing,” Ben Kifer said. “(My mom) was able to come over and baptize my daughter, and it was a very special event for our church. For me, as a believer and as a pastor, it was powerful to hold the baby in my arms and know she would be blessed by God and raised in church and having my mom there just added a whole other family element. You could feel the Holy Spirit moving that day.”

Ben Kifer said being baptized by his grandfather and growing up with both his grandfather and mother serving as Lutheran pastors inspired him to go into ministry. As a college student, he started to feel a call to ministry, leading him to enroll in Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in California, he said.

Grace Lutheran Church will baptize people of any age, including babies, if they’ve not already been baptized. The tradition is a focus on God’s blessing of the Holy Spirit given to the person who’s being baptized, which can happen for a person at any age, he said.

Kifer said with Kaylee’s baptism, it leaves a responsibility for the family, the sponsors of the person being baptized and the church family to follow through with their baptismal promises: teaching them to pray, teaching them Bible stories and passing down the tradition of the church.

“We baptize babies when we can, and watch the Holy Spirit grow with them as they grow. To hold that baby in your arms and know that God has blessed them and God has planted that spirit in them and will stir up the spirit and help that person to grow in the spirit as they grow, it’s just a great thing. It’s very emotional, and it’s a great feeling. We see it as a community responsibility to be sure when we baptize a baby that we are all going to follow through and raise the child in a way God would see fit,” Ben Kifer said.

“I think it’s great our family has followed through with those baptismal promises, and we took these promises seriously with Kaylee. I hope someday I will be able to carry that on with my own grandchild, which is a really great goal to have because it would mean we are raising our daughter in the church, and she would take that faith forward. We hope in our family and in our church that we can keep that tradition going.”

Grace Lutheran Church is located at 1776 N. Market St. in Washington.