While it's been years since I had read any references to "The Didache," I assume most seminarians and pastors are familiar with this early-church pamphlet known as "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles."

Judging by the fractious disputes that regularly threaten churches and denominations, though, it seems Christians have a problem translating it into practical application.

Most of what I had read about "The Didache" concerned warnings against hosting traveling teachers for more than a few nights, and wariness toward itinerant evangelists whose eyes were obviously set on money.

However, what caught my eye in a recent Christianity Today feature on these teachings was a small sidebar concerning baptism, which read:

"After you have reviewed all these things, baptize ‘in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' in running water. But if you have no running water, then baptize in some other water, and if you are not able to baptize in cold water, then do so in warm. But if you have neither, then pour water on the head three times ‘in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit.'"

Having grown up in a Lutheran church, I learned in catechism class how sprinkling was adequate for baptism, accompanied by a sneering remark about Baptists thinking converts must be "dunked." When I got baptized at age 30 in a Southern Baptist ceremony, the Methodists who sprinkled me as a three-month-old infant may have had spasms of indignity.

It goes like that in church circles. Pick a practice or doctrine -- baptism, eternal security, or the type of bread and juice/wine used in Communion -- and someone is ready to take up arms to defend the correctness of their way. How silly.

I see in "The Didache's" baptism instruction a remarkable appeal to flexibility. We are no longer under the law; we have freedom in Christ. Therefore, the point is not the method—an approach rooted in legalism—but getting it done.

This reminds me of God@Work (Vol. 2), the book I co-authored last year with Rich Marshall, where he talked about an overseas baptism in a hotel. Because it was impractical to dunk workers about to report for the morning shift, the men conducting the ceremony stuck their head in a bowl of water.

Some would scream "Sacrilege!" I think not. "The Didache" grants creative people the freedom to adapt their methods to fit the occasion.

If more pastors and church leaders would emphasize flexibility and grace over rules, maybe we would see fewer fights spilling into church splits and nasty headlines.