-How Do I Become a Member?-

Receiving Church Members 

We must be very careful about receiving new members (Pr. 3:5-6; Josh. 9:3-6, 14-15). Our aim is a regenerate church membership. If we are hasty and careless in this matter, the church will grow weak because it will be a mixed multitude of saved and unsaved. 

We must not forget that not everyone who says they believe in Jesus is truly saved. The Bible warns that the heart of man is deceitful (Jer. 17:9) and sometimes people pretend to “believe” only in order to try to get something or from some other false motive. The people in Matthew 7:21-23 call upon Jesus and do many works, but they are not saved because they do not know Christ personally. The people in John 2:23-25 “believed,” but Jesus knew that they were not believing on Him for salvation; they were merely wanting a king to provide for them and to conquer their enemies (Compare John 6:15, 26). In John 6:66, these same people turned away from Jesus because they were offended at His teaching. Also in Acts 8:12-13, Simon “believed,” but he was only believing in order to get power and was not believing sincerely for salvation. See Acts 8:18-23. 

The Requirement For Those Who Are Joining By Profession Of Faith In Christ

In Acts 2 there were two things that were required of those who joined the church at Jerusalem. They repented of their sin and believed on Christ (Acts 2:38-41). 

1. They repented of their sin and believed on Christ (Acts 2:38-41). 

Paul also preached repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21).

Repentance is to surrender to God’s authority. It means to turn around and go in a different direction. It is to turn to God from idols (1 Thes. 1:9). Repentance is a change of heart, not a change of life. If there is a repentant heart, there is a willingness to change the life. Two examples of repentance are Zacchaeus (Lu. 19:5-9) and the Prodigal Son (Lu. 15:17-19). 

Saving faith is to receive the gospel joyfully. It is something that is done freely with the full heart. There is no compulsion. Compare Acts 8:37. 

2. They were baptized scripturally (Acts 2:41). They were baptized after they believed and were saved, and they were baptized by immersion as public testimony of their faith in Christ and as a picture of the gospel: the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (Ro. 6:3-4).

Requirement For Joining From Another Church

1. The candidate must have a scriptural testimony of salvation.

2. We require anyone coming from another church to be baptized into this body by a properly authorized and ordained Baptist administrator, who is organized and authorized to carry out the works of the gospel ministry under the authority of Liberty Baptist Church. The reason we require this is because in this day of apostasy we can’t know that everything that calls itself a church is a true New Testament Church. Even those that call themselves Baptist don’t know, hold to, or understand the Doctrine of Christ (Hebrews 6:1-2 cf. 2 John 9-11). Essentially the reason for this precaution is to protect the Lord’s assembly. We don’t want to set ourselves up as judges whether this church or that church is truly a church, therefore, anyone wishing to join this assembly must come by way of baptism.

3. Since the Lord wants His churches to have no division, be perfectly joined together in the same mind and judgment, it is necessary that the candidate be in full agreement with the church’s covenant and doctrinal statement (1 Co. 1:10).