Being a healthy member of a local church is something we value highly at Streetsville Baptist Church. A believer commits himself or herself in membership to a local church for service and accountability, formally joining the church family for mutual support. We grow together, pray for one another, admonish one another, and encourage each other in the gospel. A member is not only involved in the direction and maintenance of the church, but also in the guarding of the gospel and truth of the Word, for a member affirms the testimony and confession of incoming members as genuine. This helps protect the church from diluting its gospel witness or straying from it.
There are 2 ways to become a member of our church: the direct way and the indirect way. The direct way is through baptism. A believer stands in front of the church and publicly confesses faith in Jesus by being immersed in water, witnessed directly by the church family. The baptized believer enters into membership directly through eyewitnessed testimony. Alternatively, the indirect way is when a believer has already been baptized at another church. In that case, we have not been able to witness their public confession of faith in baptism, so we ask for their written testimony to be laid before our family of members to read, prayerfully consider, and affirm as a genuine confession of faith in Jesus. Our membership then joyfully accepts them as a brother or sister in Christ.
Membership in a local church is a joyful spiritual discipline meant for the Christian’s growth and encouragement as part of the Body of Christ and family of God. The Church is built upon the rock confession that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God,” held in common by brothers and sisters in Christ, bound together by the Holy Spirit in committed covenant to God and to each other.
Having been led by the Spirit of God to receive Jesus Christ as our Saviour, and having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we do now in the presence of God and this assembly most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another as one body of Christ.
We purpose, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian love, to strive for the advancement of this Church, in knowledge, holiness and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline and doctrines; to contribute cheerfully and regularly in the support of the ministry, the expenses of the Church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel throughout all nations.
We also purpose to maintain family and private/personal devotions, to educate our children in the things of the Lord and to seek the salvation of our relatives and acquaintances; to walk carefully in the world; to be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements and exemplary in our behaviour; to abstain from every appearance of evil, and to be zealous in our efforts to advance the Kingdom of our Saviour.
We further purpose to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember each other in prayer; to aid each other in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offence, but always ready for reconciliation, and mindful of the rules of our Saviour to secure that reconciliation without delay.