Membership Matters 
 
Church membership describes the responsibility and relationship baptized believers in Christ have to one another under Christ. When a person receives Jesus as their Lord and Savior by faith, the Bible says they become members of His body, the church. The Lord involves every believer in His work of redemption, and we each have a responsibility to serve the Lord.
 
Every believer all over the world and in heaven belongs to Christ’s Church. The local church is the visible expression of the whole church at work. We cannot love and serve every believer all over the world, but we can love and serve the believers in our local congregation. We join the local church to carry out our responsibilities with one another.
 
Bethel Baptist Church has recognized the high call of church membership, and desires that every believer join together to connect, love, disciple and serve according to Jesus’ leadership. Our beliefs, mission, covenant, discipleship process, and core values unify us and help us to become the church God has called us to be.
Our membership process follows these steps:

• Talk with the pastor about your interest in joining and your faith story 
• Complete the Membership Orientation 
• Sign pledge to covenant with this body in Christian service
• Join by profession of faith in Jesus Christ and baptism by immersion, by letter from a Southern Baptist Church, or by statement of faith in Jesus Christ and testimony of Biblical baptism
Doing it Together—Covenant
 
Having been convicted by the Holy Spirit, we receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and, on the profession of our faith, 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 in Christ.

We commit, 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, doctrines, and discipline; to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations.

We also commit to maintain family and personal devotions; to educate our children in God’s truths; to seek the salvation of our family and friends; to walk uprightly in the world; to be just in our dealings, faithful in our commitments and exemplary in our lifestyle; and to be zealous in our efforts to advance the kingdom of our Savior.

We further commit to watch over one another in Christian love; to remember one another in prayer; to aid one another in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and Christian courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay.

We moreover commit that when we, as Christians, depart from this fellowship we will as soon as possible unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s Word.