The Sacraments belong to the Church...

Now since this charge is expressly given to the apostles along with the preaching of the word, it follows that none can lawfully administer baptism but those who are also the ministers of doctrine. When private persons, and even women, are permitted to baptize, nothing can be more at variance with the ordinance of Christ, nor is it any thing else than a mere profanation. - Calvin on Matthew 28:16-20

Increasingly, the session of ClearNote Church of Bloomington has been receiving applicants for membership who have been baptized by Cru girlfriends, their parents, a parachurch aquaintance, or almost anyone other than a church officer administering the Sacraments as a fulfillment of his office.

We've worked through this carefully, finally coming to the conclusion that baptisms done privately by friends and relatives are not true baptisms. There are many issues, here, and the arguments are long and involved, but at the end of it there was no doubt in our minds that the Sacraments are given by our Lord to the Church--not to individuals and families--and that to be a fulfillment of our Lord's commands, they must be administered by the officers our Lord has called and set apart to lead His Church.

For those with ears to hear...

only those who have been baptized into the Church may eat at the Lord's Table. From the beginning, baptism has been the initiation rite marking a man's flesh with the sign of his entry into the Covenant by faith. Those who have not been marked with this sign have never been allowed to eat at the Family Table and ought not to be allowed to do so today.

Which is to say what Calvin writes above is boringly normal Protestant doctrine, at least where Protestantism is not in bondage to those errors commonly known as sacramentalism and sacerdotalism which are contrary to the Word of God.

(TB: from son JTB)