Baptism for Church Membership?

I have to say, I don't know of any here. I hope somoene will know more about it, that interesting. I would think all baptist churchs beleived in beleivers baptism.

 

Diane, Article VII, Baptist Faith and Message:

"Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper."

Maybe this will help!!

 

Even the liberal Baptist churches familiar to me require immersion prior to membership.

What amazes me is ow quickly after a conversion experience some churches baptize. I have never baptized a candidate under at least a 3 month wait..prefer a 6 month wait.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Diane,
I have been SBC, GARBC, General Conference Baptist and now IFB, all have required baptism before membership, it very basic to Baptist doctrine.

 

Well, I guess it gets into the autonomy of the local Baptist Church and how "strict" they are on the requirements of joining. (Or how well they "question" people who present themselves for membership.)

We have people who have presented themselves for membership in our church by "Statement of Faith" indicating they have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior but have not been baptized by immersion. We consider them "awaiting membership, pending baptism". Do they think they are members? Probably. However, according to our "records", they are not.

Some attend Sunday School and worship regularly and participate in all the church activities. But if someone wanted to be a Sunday School teacher or a deacon or any other leadership position in the church and had not been baptized by immersion, they could not.

We have sent letters indicating they need to be baptized in order to be obedient to the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to become a "member in good standing." Some respond; some don't.

We have a lot of people joining our church from non-Baptist backgrounds. At the time they join, they are asked to share their salvation experience with one of our decision encouragers. If they can do that, and we determine they do know of a specific time in their life when they realized they were a sinner, God loved them enough to send His Son to die for their sins, rose again on the third day, and asked Him into their life to be their personal Lord and Savior, we must believe they are truly saved. But, depending on their "church" background, the idea of baptism by immersion may be foreign to them. ("Yes, I've been baptized...as a baby".)

We explain to them the meaning of baptism and why it is necessary after salvation. We also explain to them they cannot be a church member unless they have been baptized by immersion.

Some get it; some don't. So I can see how some THINK they are members of Baptist churches, but I would guess if you checked with the particular Baptist churches, they probably are not.

We also have people who are not from a Baptist background, or ANY church background for that matter, and really don't even understand the concept of "church membership".

I may have muddied the water even more with all of this explanation, but maybe there are some "nuggets" buried in there somewhere that will help!

CJ

 

...more...

When I first went to work for my church, I was responsible for membership records. We would have people who, according to our records, were "awaiting membership, pending baptism" who would "join" another church.

When the other church would write us for their transfer of letter, I would send them a letter to the effect that they were not members, but "we will adjust our records to indicate they are not attending here anymore. We entrust them into your care and pray they will realize the need for believer's baptism following their salvation experience." (Or something like that!)

CJ

 

It is true that to become a member of a Baptist church you must give a believable testimony of salvation and proof of baptism in a Baptist church or be baptised in the baptist church that you are applying to for membership.

But the thread in which you are referring to is not about church membership. It's about answering a question that only God can answer and that is who is saved. To say that it is about church membership seems to be giving the wrong impression.

 

I'm not trying to answer that thread but the question Tuor has asked me and DHK is do all Baptist churches require baptism for church membership.

Diane </font>[/QUOTE]No you misread my post, the quote you are siting is what I said the other thread was about. Not this one. In fact I think if you look at my first paragraph:

you will see that I do know what this thread is about and posted as much.

Maybe I'm tired. I read my post and it makes perfect sense to me. I don't see why you misread it. Maybe I need to go to bed and look at my words with rested eyes. And it's only 7:35 here. Maybe I didn't communicate as eloquently as usual. (that's a joke, not arrogance) Going to get off now...will check back on this tomorrow.

 

Well my church is very strict about it. But that's the only Baptist church I've experienced.

Good night Diane. I can't keep my eyes from watering.

 

I don't think that's quite true, at least for ABC (nor, I imagine, for a lot of others). At Fremont I believe it is possible to be admitted to membership on profession of faith without having been immersed, if the baptism was only in mode different from ours (in other words, we will accept as a member a person who was previously baptized by aspersion or affusion) if they prefer not to be rebaptized "the right way". At Japanese Baptist (where I recently sat through a six-week class of membership preparation) I believe they insist on immersion, but not necessarily in a Baptist church (e.g. Church of God, Disciples, Assemblies of God baptisms might be accepted). Of course, in the membership class they would be asked to abjure Campbell and all his works and tongues to boot...

When I first saw the subject line of this thread I thought it meant the practice (found in some Landmarkite Baptist churches, and also I believe in some other Mexican Baptist churches) of requiring local baptism, in other words if you move from one town to another you have to be rebaptized in the local church in order to join it. This practice I would regard as sectarian silliness.

Haruo