Readings

It’s time to have an important and honest discussion. Know you don’t have to discuss this question with anyone except yourself and Jesus. That being said, has your passion for Christ begun to wane since we are no longer, for now, having services in our church building? 

Think back to when you gave your life to Christ in true and sincere faith. There was a hunger to learn and to read God’s Word, to study to show thyself approved! There was a thirst to be in worship, and to share with others, the good news of Jesus Christ. You wanted all to know how receiving the gift of God’s salvation changed your life! Remember, at that time, your life’s number one passion was your relationship with the Trinity: God, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Spirit. 

But over time, life’s challenges, opportunities, busyness, and even a shut-down due to a world-wide pandemic—they just crept in and caused a change in your priorities and your passion for Christ began to wane. 

If this is your story, it’s time to “re-write” the story! Remind yourself that “God’s church” is not the physical church building. Rather, God’s church is within your heart! If we are more passionate about anyone or anything than our relationship and passion for God, your love priorities are out of whack! Remember, when you gave your heart to God, it is a passion maintained not by the form, fashion or physical aspects of this world, but the passion is evidenced through loving Him with your whole heart, body, and soul! The passion is evidenced  and maintained by placing God first in your life!

 MINISTER: By what common and gracious experience do we enter into spiritual fellowship and covenant relations with God and with one another?  

CONGREGATION:  Having been led, as we believe, by the spirit of God, to receive the  Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, and on the profession of our faith,  having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of  the Holy Ghost, we do now in the presence of God, angels and this  assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with  one another, as one body in Christ  

MINISTER: What is the great bond of our union with God and each other?  

CONGREGATION: We engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit to walk together in Christian love.  

MINISTER: What are our great privileges and duties as members of the New Jerusalem Baptist Church?  

CONGREGATION: To strive for the advancement of this Church in knowledge,  holiness, and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to  sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines.  

MINISTER: What vows do we gladly make as stewards of that which God has entrusted to us?           '  

CONGREGATION: To contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel throughout all nations.  

MINISTER: For the sake of our homes and our loved ones, what gracious task do we humbly assume?  

CONGREGATION: We also engage to maintain family and secret devotions;  to religiously educate our children; to seek the salvation of  our kindred and acquaintances; to walk circumspectly in the world; to be  just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in  our deportment; to avoid @ tattling, backbiting, and excessive anger; to  abstain from the sale and use of intoxicating drink as a beverage, and  to be zealous in our efforts to advance the Kingdom of our Saviour.  

MINISTER:  Since one is our master, even Christ, and all we are brethren, by what  fraternal ministries are we to strengthen each other and adorn the  teachings of our Lord and Saviour?  

CONGREGATION: We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember each other in prayer; to aid each other in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation, and mindful of the rules of our Saviour, to seek it without delay. 

MINISTER: Upon removing from the Washington, D.C. area, what solemn pledge do we make?  

CONGREGATION: We moreover engage that, when we remove from this  place, we will as soon as possible unite with some other church  where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of  God's word.  

MINISTER and CONGREGATION: Humbly  confessing our past sins, we pray for grace and strength to keep these,  our holy vows, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, and the edification  of His Church.  

MINISTER: And now unto Him, who brought again from the dead, Our Lord Jesus, be Power and Glory forever, Amen.    

 1. BAPTISTS believe in one God, the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit- three persons, yet one God.  

2.  BAPTISTS believe in the deity and the humanity of Jesus Christ, who is  none other than God the Son manifest in the flesh, and in whom all  the fullness of the Godhead dwells forever.  

3. BAPTISTS believe  that Jesus Christ is the one only Head of the Church; that all believers  are equally priests unto God; that ordination, while it recognizes  position, bestows no power; that the local church is independent and  sovereign.  

4. BAPTISTS believe that all men are sinners needing a  Saviour; that salvation is only and altogether through simple faith in  Jesus Christ, who died for our sins-faith always accompanied by works  meet for repentance, and that without such faith there can be no  salvation here or hereafter.  

5. BAPTISTS believe in unbroken  conscious existence after death determined by life before death: in the  personal second coming of Christ to judge the world; in the resurrection  of the body which for those who die in the Lord shall be like Christ's  glorious body; in the eternal weal of the saved and the eternal woe of  the lost. 

 II. What Baptists Stand For 

1.  BAPTISTS stand for the Bible. It is their law, their creed, and their  final authority in all matters relating to faith and practice.  

2. BAPTISTS stand for regeneration or "the birth from above" as a basis of church membership.  

3.  BAPTISTS stand for believer's baptism, the immersion of the believer in  water in obedience to Christ's command in the name of the Father,  and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, as a symbol of the death to the  old life and the resurrection to the new.  

4. BAPTISTS stand for the separation of Church and State, and for the largest measure of civil and religious-liberty.  

5. BAPTISTS stand for education, evangelism, and world-wide missionary endeavor.    

As  believers in Christ of the Baptist denomination, our object is to  worship God in Christ, fellowship together in Christian love, preach  Christ, teach and practice Christianity as taught in the New Testament,  and carry out the principles of God's word. We further aim to  witness for Christ in word and deed to the effect that others shall be  won to the saving knowledge of Christ by our example. We further  aim to promote orderly and godly living and dedicated Christian service  among our constituency for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We further aim to advance the work of Christian Missions on both home and foreign fields.