So... practically speaking (in the spirit of Thabiti's post) that's water pistols in the hands of the congregation for post immersion sprinkling, plus a guy standing by with a bucket?

Excellent Geoff!! Let's soak 'em good!

Pardon the intrusion of a Southern Baptist layman, but I though there was a different kind of symbolism in the usual baptism ceremony. Not all Baptists would agree with this, but Baptists hardly ever agree on anything.

There is usually a question the pastor asks the one being baptized. It is a question that requires a public statement of faith and repentance. “Do you accept Christ as your savior and agree to follow Him all the days of your life?” The response is “I will.” It is often followed with a challenge to the congregation to covenant to care for the spiritual health of the baptized. The answer is “I will.” This is the point where faith and regeneration come in. The outpouring of the Spirit comes with the faith and repentance of the statement of the one baptized.

Then the person is immersed in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit with the words, “Buried with Christ in baptism. Raised to walk in newness of life.”

Baptism is the symbol not of regeneration but of the results of regeneration: that we are (indicative) dead to sin and alive to Christ. The guilt and the presence of our sin is symbolically washed away.

I am less concerned with the logical priority of the baptismal symbols that I am with the statement of faith and repentance. Immersion seems to me to be a better symbol, but I won’t ‘go to war’ over that.