Church Covenant

We use our church covenant in two ways. First, we require all new members to affirm our covenant and sign it before joining the church. Second, we reaffirm our commitment to covenant together at all members’ meetings and before taking communion. By featuring the covenant in our life together, we strive to protect ourselves from individual and corporate sin. Of equal importance, we spur one another on to live in light of a greater covenant, one initiated by love, sealed by sacrifice, and kept for eternity by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, trusting exclusively upon him for our salvation and giving up ourselves wholly to him in joyful obedience, and having been baptized on our profession of our faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we now, in the presence of God, angels, and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully covenant together as one body in Christ.

We engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; to meet together regularly for worship, work, edification, and fellowship; to welcome and discern all instruction from the Scriptures by the elders and teachers of the church; to submit ourselves to the elders as ones keeping watch over our souls and to the discipline of the church; and to contribute cheerfully and regularly as God prospers us to the support the ministry and the expenses of the church, to the relief of those in need, and to the spread of the gospel to all nations for their joy and for God’s glory.

We also engage to serve one another according our gifts; to remember one another in prayer; to encourage one another; to speak the truth to one another in love; to teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; to rejoice with one another in happiness; to shoulder one another’s burdens and sorrows; to show hospitality to one another; to bear with one another in love with all humility, gentleness, and patience; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the commands of Scripture to secure it without delay.

We further engage to maintain family and personal devotions; to raise our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord; to seek the salvation of our family, friends, and acquaintances; to live blamelessly before the world by denying ungodly, worldly, and fleshly desires; to be faithful stewards of our possessions; to be just and honest in our dealings; to avoid all gossip, backbiting, and excessive anger; to obey the law and all who are in authority over us so long as such obedience does not contradict the commands of God; and to be willing, as occasion requires, to give up our preferences for the sake of peace and our Christian liberties for the sake of our witness and the conscience of other believers.

We moreover engage that when we remove from this place, we will, if possible, unite with a likeminded church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.