Being a healthy member of a local church is something we value highly at Streetsville Baptist Church. A believer commits himself or herself in membership to a local church for service and accountability, formally joining the church family for mutual support. We grow together, pray for one another, admonish one another, and encourage each other in the gospel. A member is not only involved in the direction and maintenance of the church, but also in the guarding of the gospel and truth of the Word, for a member affirms the testimony and confession of incoming members as genuine. This helps protect the church from diluting its gospel witness or straying from it.
There are 2 ways to become a member: the Direct way and the Indirect way. The direct way is through baptism. A believer stands in front of the church and publicly confesses faith in Jesus by being immersed in water, witnessed directly by the church family. The baptized believer enters into membership directly through witnessed testimony. The indirect way is when a believer has already been baptized at another church. In that case, we have not been able to witness their public confession of faith in baptism, so we ask for their written testimony to be laid before our family of members to read, prayerfully consider, and affirm as a genuine confession of faith in Jesus. Our membership then joyfully accepts them as a brother or sister in Christ.
Membership in a local church is a joyful spiritual discipline meant for the Christian’s growth and encouragement as part of the Body of Christ and family of God. The Church is built upon the rock confession that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God,” held in common by brothers and sisters in Christ, bound together by the Holy Spirit in committed covenant to God and to each other.