Membership

Membership at Cloverdale Baptist Church

Membership involves a commitment to our local church in the use of your gifts, and it helps us to remain doctrinally pure as a church as together we believe and follow what our doctrinal statement teaches.

Membership at Cloverdale Baptist Church includes:

Participating in the lives of other believers.
Using your spiritual gifts to help build up this church.
Being a part of the solution to problems when the need arises.
Having and exercising the privilege and responsibility to vote.
Attending services to regularly receive spiritual food and to worship God.
Having a ministry mindset when you come to church.
Supporting the church and her ministries practically, spiritually, and financially.
Maintaining your own spiritual life through spending time in prayer, in the Word, preaching the Gospel to yourself and in community.
Being loyal to Christ, His Church, and the leaders He has placed in our church.
This involves prayer and protection from slander.

Why is Membership Important?

1. It helps clarify the Gospel and authentic Christianity to non-believers:

Allows us to encourage one another to follow Christ fully.
Corporate testimony: this is how Christians live.
Matthew 28:16-20; 1 Peter 2:11-12; 1 Corinthians 5

2. It is to help weaker Christians see the importance of commitment to church, the visible Bride of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-16

3. It is a step of commitment to God’s people at Cloverdale Baptist Church.

God has commanded this in terms of commitment to His family.
This is a joy and a responsibility.
Hebrews 3:12-14; Hebrews 10:25; Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Corinthians 12-14
This will involve a commitment to a personal pursuit of Christ with us. As well as the responsibilities and joys that come with being a member.

4. It is a willingness to submit ourselves to the leadership of this church (Hebrews 13:7, 17) and to the statement of faith of Cloverdale Baptist Church and help other members do the same.

This will evidence with prayer & encouragement as together we pursue God’s Glory.
Shows the evidence of prayer for the church and its leaders and mutual encouragement as together we pursue God’s Glory.
Builds a mutual accountability for God’s glory.

5. The local church is the biblical model presented as the institution of Christ’s Universal Church which actually works out in practical service, the calling of the Great Command and the Great Commission of Mark 12:29-31; Matthew 28:18-20.

Joining also helps us to be a part of Cloverdale Baptist Church as a charitable organization.
It displays and delivers on the understanding that the local church is important for Jesus’ mission, and mandated for Jesus’ followers. Belonging to the local church is a step of obedience to our Living Savior!

Membership Class

The Membership Class is an opportunity for us to learn together and to grow together. It is set up to display who Cloverdale Baptist Church is, why it is important to be a member, and what it means to be a committed person in God’s plan for His family here. This means that we will spend a lot of time displaying who we are. If you want to debate anything that is found in our orientation manual, we would welcome that, but not during the class time as the goal is to show who we are, with Biblical backup. Our desire as a church is to live together as a family, loyal to Jesus and one another, and in this be conformed to His image and make a missional impact together for His glory.

Our Membership Class lasts 6 weeks and runs a few times a year, on Sundays at 9:00am

Registration

Use our Get Involved form and select Membership to learn more and register for the class.

Get Involved

The Process

Take the course
Fill out the form
Meet with elders (interview)
Names published in bulletin
Accepted into membership by elders
Welcomed at a gathering of the church

Church Membership Book

Our membership manual, designed for in and out of class use. Download the free PDF version or purchase a paperback copy on Amazon using the following links:

Cloverdale Baptist