How to Become a Member

What is church membership?

When an individual is saved, he becomes a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). Because he is united to Christ and the other members of the body in this way, he is therefore qualified to become member of a local expression of that body. To become a member of a church is to formally commit oneself to an identifiable, local body of believers who have joined together for specific, divinely ordained purposes. These purposes include receiving instruction from God’s Word (1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:2), serving and edifying one another through the proper use of spiritual gifts (Rom. 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-31; 1 Pet. 4:10-11), participating in the ordinances (Luke 22:19; Acts 2:38-42), and proclaiming the gospel to those who are lost (Matt. 28:18-20). In addition, when one becomes a member of a church, he submits himself to the care and the authority of the qualified pastors that God has placed in that assembly.

Why is membership important?

It is important to have a church home -- a place to worship God, a place to grow in your faith and to turn to in times of trouble. We invite you to join us in our journey of faith. Beyond that church membership also makes a statement: “I belong here. I am committed to the church, and the church is committed to me!” The church is not an “it.” It’s an “us.” DBC is not about sticks and stones; it’s about flesh and bones. And all of us together, under the head (Jesus Christ), make up the church.

How do I become a member of this church?

Becoming a member here isn’t difficult at all. We just ask you to do three things:

Have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ
Be baptized by immersion if you haven’t already
Talk to the pastor about your desire to join Daleville Baptist Church. He will be happy to talk to you more in depth about the importance of church membership and guide you forward to the next steps.

First off, it is most important that you are personally confident that you have received Christ as your Savior through faith (2 Cor 6:14-18). If you are confident of that fact, next you need to be baptized, if you have not already done so. We would be happy to baptize you if you choose to do so; this would be joining the church by baptism (see below). If you are in a relationship with Christ and have been baptized, then all you need to do is come forward during an invitation (the last song right after the message, towards the end of the service) and tell the pastor that you want to join the church. He will take care of the rest. If you are currently a member of another church or have been a member of another church joining our church would be considered a transfer of membership (see below). Most people will be joining the church by transfer of membership or by baptism, however occasionally someone will be saved and have already been baptized, but either the church that they belonged to is no longer in existence or some other reason exists that prevents us from contacting their former church. In this event we would allow them to join by statement of faith(see below). That is that they would affirm that they are saved and have been baptized by immersion by a church of like faith.

By Baptism- Jesus Christ was Himself baptized and He taught us that baptism is a way in which we can publicly profess that we have accepted him as our Savior. Baptism symbolically represents the transformation that has take place in our lives through our personal faith in Christ. Baptism is really the first step of obedience we take in our spiritual life. Because of the importance of this decision we require everyone to be baptized before they can be accepted as a member.

By Transfer of Membership- After you fill out your application for membership our church clerk will mail your previous church a letter stating your desire to join our fellowship. You former church will then take you off of their membership list and you will be added onto our membership list.

By Statement of Faith- A person joining the church by this means would be affirming that they are in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and that they have been baptized by a church of like faith.

If you want to know more, email Pastor Wes Belcher, at wabelcher@gmail.com or call him at 276.780.0437.