How We Live

The members of Providence Church are united in commitment to one another and to God through our Membership Covenant. The expectations for our members do not extend beyond the responsibilities that Scripture establishes for all believers. While the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith is a good summary of what we believe, our Membership Covenant is a summary of how we agree to live—more importantly, it is a summary of how God would have us live in His world.

The Membership Covenant for Providence Church uses an adapted version of the “Solemn Covenant,” which the English Reformed Baptist pastor Benjamin Keach wrote in 1689 and which Charles H. Spurgeon’s church in London also utilized.

Providence Church Membership Covenant

With the help of the Holy Spirit, we who desire to walk together in the fear of the Lord profess our deep and serious humiliation for all our transgressions. In the presence of God and each other, with a deep sense of our own unworthiness, we solemnly surrender ourselves to the Lord in this local church according to the apostolic design. We surrender ourselves to the Lord so that He may be our God and we may be His people through the new covenant of His free grace, in which alone we hope God accepts us through His blessed Son Jesus Christ. We take Christ to be our High Priest to justify and sanctify us, our Prophet to teach us, and our King to rule over us. We aspire to conform to all His holy laws and ordinances for our growth, edification, and encouragement so that we may be as a holy spouse unto Him, serve Him in our generation, and wait for His second coming as our glorious Bridegroom.

Being fully satisfied in the way of church-fellowship and of the presence of the truth of grace in some good measure in one another’s lives, we solemnly join ourselves together in a holy union and fellowship by humbly submitting to the discipline of the gospel and all holy duties required of a people in such a spiritual communion.

1. We promise to walk in all holiness, godliness, humility, and brotherly love, and as much as in us lies to render our fellowship delightful to God, comforting to each other, and lovely to the rest of the Lord’s people.

2. We promise to watch over each other’s behavior and not to allow sin against one another, so far as God shall reveal it to us; to stir up one another to love and good works; and to warn, rebuke, and admonish one another with meekness according to the rules Christ left us.

3. We promise in a special manner to pray for one another, for God’s glory to be displayed in this church, for the increase of this church, for the presence of God in it, for the pouring forth of his Spirit on it, and for his protection over it to his glory.

4. We promise to bear one another’s burdens, to unite with one another, and to show hospitality in loving fellowship with one another in all conditions, both outward and inward, into which God in his providence shall place any of us.

5. We promise to bear with one another’s weaknesses, failings, and infirmities with much tenderness and to follow what God instructs regarding church discipline.

6. We promise to strive together for the truth of the gospel and the purity of God’s ways and ordinances and to avoid causes and causers of division, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

7. We promise to submit to the elders whom God has graciously placed over us in this local church, as they will stand before God and give an account for their shepherding responsibilities: teaching, overseeing, caring for, and protecting the flock that God has entrusted to them.

8. We promise to meet together on the Lord’s Day and at other times as the Lord shall give us opportunities, to serve and glorify God in the way of his worship, to edify one another, and to strive for the good of his church.

9. We promise, according to our ability (or as God shall bless us with the good things of this world), to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the ministry of the church.

10. We promise to encourage husbands as the head of their wives to love them as Christ does the church; to encourage wives to submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ; to encourage children to obey their parents in the Lord; and to encourage fathers to give their children an opportunity for a Christian education.

We humbly submit to these and all other gospel duties. We promise and purpose to perform not in our own strength - being conscious of our own weakness - but in the power and strength of the blessed God, to whom we belong and whom we desire to serve. To him be the glory now and forevermore. Amen.

“Now to Him who is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” - Jude 24-25