What's up with Church Membership?

The Bible teaches that believers should be in fellowship with each other in a significant, covenanted relationship. 185 years ago, our own church congregation organized itself into a covenant community of believers, united together for fellowship, accountability, encouragement, and cooperation and mutual support in ministry. What we are today arises from those initial meetings back in 1833, for those pioneer church members evangelized their friends, and mentored subsequent generations in Christian ministry. Since then, many hundreds of believers joined this congregation and did their part to promote and support the church’s health.

What we will be in years to come will depend upon our own diligence in proclaiming the gospel and nurturing the church’s health. Since our church is governed by its own membership and not by a larger presbytery or diocese, so much depends upon its own members committing themselves to one another in a covenanted fellowship.

Accordingly, we encourage those who attend and participate in our congregation and its ministries to take up church membership—to join the church. We want to encourage congregational ownership of church matters and decision-making.

To this end, we encourage non-members to pray and to seek God’s leading about joining our church. Church membership is offered to baptized believers who are willing to bond with the congregation in love, personal support, accountability, and the financial backing of the church’s mission. In return, members are responsible for voting on church matters and may hold elected office. In every case, we promise our fealty, that is, our intense loyalty, not to some abstract organization, but to one another in the bond of the Spirit.

If you would like to learn more about church membership, contact your pastor or one of your church deacons.