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Church
Covenant |
LPBC has worshiped together under a covenant, or formal statement on how we agree to live as a church, since our earliest days in 1981. The church covenant is equal parts promise, summary of expectations, ethical statement, and biblical standard. We summarize how we promise to live together in the covenant. It forms the ethics, or the moral principles, of our worldview and holds out a biblical standard by which we live. Our acceptance of this multifaceted document follows the practice of believers throughout the centuries who have pledged to God and one another to live out the gospel in community.
We use our covenant in two key ways. First, we require all members to commit to uphold the covenant. And second, we reaffirm our commitment to the covenant at all members meetings and before taking communion, when we stand as a body and recommit ourselves to it. By featuring the covenant in our life together, we strive to protect our witness unto Christ from individual and corporate sin. Of equal importance, we spur one another on to live in light of a greater covenant, one initiated by love, sealed by sacrifice, and kept for eternity by our Savior, Jesus Christ. La Plata Baptist Church Covenant Having been led by the Spirit of God to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, and on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we do now in the presence of God, angels and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully covenant with one another as one body in Christ, and by the aid of the Holy Spirit, commit to the following: We will walk together in Christian love; strive for the advancement of the church in knowledge, holiness, and comfort; promote its spirituality and prosperity; sustain Scriptural worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrine; give the church sacred preeminence over all institutions of human origin in our attendance; contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church and the spread of the Gospel to all nations. We also commit to maintain family and personal devotions; raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord; seek the salvation of our family and friends; to be a careful witness in the world; being just in our dealings; avoiding all gossip, backbiting, and unrighteous anger; to abstain from anything that would defile the temple of the Holy Spirit; and be zealous in our efforts to maintain a testimony for the cause of Christ. We further commit to watch over one another in brotherly love; remember each other in prayer; aid each other in sickness and distress; cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and speech; to be slow to take offense, being mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure reconciliation without delay. Moreover, we commit that, when we move from this place, we will, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can live out the spirit of this covenant and the principles and practices of God’s Word. 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. |