Thank you for your interest in becoming a member at CSBC! We are so excited that you are considering joining our fellowship.
Why Join?
Let’s start at the beginning. Why is it important to join a church family? One of the basic reasons we believe that membership is important is that it was the common biblical practice. There have been many great articles and books written on this subject. Kevin DeYoung’s article “6 Reasons Why Membership Matters” is a short read on why to join a church.
Responsibilities of Membership
It is unwise to consider church membership without considering the responsibility of church membership. Being a member of a church involves more than just attending on Sunday morning. The Great Commission makes it very clear that it is the responsibility of churches to spread the Gospel throughout the world and to teach those that we reach. For this to happen it is necessary for every church member to take part.
Here are 7 briefs points of expectations of our church members:
- I will worship. We expect people to attend worship services regularly, and we expect them to worship with the heart, the mind, and the will.
- I will mature. We expect people to grow spiritually through small groups. We desire for people to have a sense of belonging to our church.
- I will serve. God created us to serve. He gifted us to serve. And He commands us to serve. Every member should function in the body, and this functioning happens through service.
- I will give. Mature believers have a generous spirit. We expect all members to give their tithe, time, and resources for the mission of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.
- I will seek unity. We have a wonderfully unified body of believers at our church. Please do not come in and mess it up, but seek to always promote unity in the body.
- I will pray. All members should pray corporately and privately. Above all, they should pray for gospel fruit.
- I will sacrifice. Membership means serving first. Sacrifice means putting gospel work above your preferences.
Prerequisites for Joining
There are a couple of prerequisites to becoming a member of CSBC. We divide these into two categories: spiritual and ritual.
Spiritual requirements
The primary prerequisite for joining CSBC is for a person to be a born-again believer in Jesus Christ. Before someone can have fellowship in the church, he or she must first have fellowship with God. This requires understanding one’s sinfulness and need for God. True repentance is when a person turns from their sin and seeks God. A person who knows that they do wrong and continues to want to live that way has not repented. Repenting of one’s sin is not enough.
One must also have faith that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God who was born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death that atoned for all sin, that He was buried for three days before God raised Him from the dead, and that He ascended to the Father. This is the basic understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ as described by the Bible. One must first believe the gospel to be saved, and one must be saved to be a member of CSBC.
Ritual requirements
Membership in the church also requires that the current membership of the church accept the believer as one of them. This is generally done in a couple of ways.
Baptism was specifically commanded in Scripture. We do not believe that baptism saves anyone, but is a testimony of the gospel active in a believer’s life. It depicts the believer joining in the likeness of Jesus’s death and resurrection. Because baptism represents the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ it is essential that full immersion take place. Baptism is performed by an authorized representative of the church, usually the pastor. If a believer has not been baptized by immersion, he or she can meet with the pastor and upon the pastor’s recommendation to the congregation, will be voted upon by the membership to authorize baptism.
Recognition of Fellowship is demonstrated when the church votes a person into the church. The Bible recognizes the church’s right to judge the qualification of her members. Candidates for membership meet with the pastor and upon the pastor’s recommendation to the congregation, will be voted upon by the current membership to extend fellowship to the candidate.
Steps to Join
Generally a person who wants to join the church will walk down to the front of the auditorium during the invitation and tell the pastor that he or she wishes to join the church. The person will be given a card that requests information about the person’s name, current church membership and other things. The pastor may ask the person additional questions and tell the church that the person is requesting membership and is coming to our church from a church that believes like ours or is coming as a candidate for baptism. There are four ways of joining the church.
By Baptism – This means the church will accept the person and baptize them before they are a member of the church. A church will receive a person by baptism when the person has not received what the church considers to be scriptural baptism. A person will be received this way if he has recently accepted Christ as his Savior and has not followed the Lord in baptism. Another reason a person might be accepted this way is if he has been saved but joined another church that the church he is joining does not recognize as a scriptural church. For example, a person might have been saved and joined a church of another denomination that does not practice believer’s baptism or baptizes by sprinkling or pouring. This person would need to be baptized by this method.
By Letter – This means that the church will accept the person as a member contingent on the recommendation of the church of which the person is currently a member and the recommendation of our church’s pastor. The person must have been baptized in a scriptural church and the church of which he is currently a member must be a scriptural church. If the other church recommends that the person not be accepted as a member then the normal course of action is to ask the person to resolve the problem with the other church prior to joining the church. This means of accepting members is used to promote harmony between individuals and churches.
By Statement – This means that the church will accept the person on his own statement of baptism and good standing with a previous church, upon the recommendation of our pastor. This method may be used if a church fails to send a recommendation either for or against church membership. It may also be used if the church in question no longer exists.
By Restoration – This means that the church is accepting a person that has been removed from the church roll. There are several reasons why this may occur. A person living outside the will of God that fails to follow the churches pleas to obey the will of God may be removed from the membership. A person that joins an unscriptural church will be dropped from the role. In either of these cases the church would accept the person by restoration if he was to return to fellowship with the church, after meeting with our pastor and upon his recommendation.