OUR COVENANT
Preamble: As we strive to live out the gospel, members of Redeemer Baptist Church affirm our commitment to God, His word, and to our biblical community through this covenant. It is a summary of the moral and biblical principles that we agree to live by and hold each other accountable to. Agreeing to this covenant is a requirement of membership in our church and we regularly reaffirm our commitment to one another by reciting this covenant together.
Having, as we trust, been brought by divine grace to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to give up ourselves to him, and having been baptized upon our profession of faith, in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, we do now, relying on His gracious aid, solemnly and joyfully renew our covenant with each other.[1]
We will work and pray for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.[2]
We will walk together in brotherly love, as becomes the members of a Christian Church, exercise an affectionate care and watchfulness over each other and faithfully admonish and entreat one another as occasion may require.[3]
We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, nor neglect to pray for ourselves and others.[4]
We will endeavor to bring up such as may at any time be under our care, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and by a pure and loving example to seek the salvation of our family and friends.[5]
We will rejoice at each others’ happiness and endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other’s burdens and sorrows.[6]
We will seek, by Divine aid, to live carefully in the world, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and remembering that, as we have been voluntarily buried by baptism and raised again from the symbolic grave, so there is on us a special obligation now to lead a new and holy life.[7]
We will work together for the continuance of a faithful evangelical ministry in this church, as we sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines. We will 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.[8]
We will, when we move from this place, 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.[9]
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.[10]
Taken from Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, D.C., historically this is an adaptation from an 1833 New Hampshire covenant.
[1] Jn 6:63; 16:7-11; 1:12; 1 Thess 2:13; Acts 2:41; 8:38; Matt 28:19; 1 Cor 12:12-13; Acts 2:42
[2] Eph 4:1-3
[3] Rom 12:10, 16:17-18; Gal 6:1-2; Matt 18:15-17; Jas 5:19-20; Col 3:16; Heb 3:12-13; 1 Thess 5:11; 1 Cor 5
[4] Heb 10:23-25; Eph 6:18; 1 Thess 5:17, 25
[5] Deut 6:1-12; 11:18-20; Matt 6:6; Eph 6:4; Mk 5:19; Lk 5:19; Matt 5:16; Eph 5:15
[6] Rom 12:15; Gal 6:2
[7] Eph 5:15; Tit 2:12; Rom 6:4; 1 Thess 4:7; 1 Pet 1:13-25
[8] Eph 2:21-22; Heb 10:25; Matt. 28:19-20; 1 Cor 11:24-34; Rom 16:17; 2 Thess 3:6; 1 Cor 5; Acts 2:42; 2 Jn 1:9-11; Matt 10:10; Gal 6:6; Mal 3:8-10; Acts 11:29; 2 Cor 8:1-5, Lk 24:46-48; Acts 1:8
[9] Acts 18:27-28; Rom 16:1-2; 1 Cor 15:58; Col 3:23; Heb 10:24-25
[10]2 Cor 13:14