DUTIES OF MEMBERSHIP.
Beliefs.
2.1 Every member shall declare full and unreserved agreement with the Covenants, Rules, and Declaration, once each year by signing at the Annual General Meeting [A.G.M.] a minute referring to these to be included in the church minute book. If by reason of distance or health a member is unable to sign this, copy of the minute provided by the church secretary is to be signed. Failure to sign such within three months of notice shall lead automatically to forfeiture of membership.
Attendance.
2.2 Except when justifiable circumstances do not allow, every member is expected to attend promptly at all services on the Lord’s Day, the Lord’s Table, the meetings for Prayer and Bible study, and church meetings. Any member who fails in this duty without rendering satisfactory reason to the Elders shall automatically forfeit membership.
Discipline.
2.3 Any member who [a] wrongs a fellow believer, or [b] commits an open sin so as to dishonour the name of Christ before unbelievers, or scandalise a brother, or[c] falls into heresy, shall be interviewed by the Elders, and if unrepentant shall be brought before the church and according to the offence be either admonished, or else suspended from the Lord’s Table, or removed from membership until such time a thorough repentance is evident. This action is not to be taken in a spirit of malice or bitterness, but out of love and concern that their soul may be saved in the day of Jesus Christ. The end in view must always be the repentance and reconciliation of the offender and the purity and blessing of the church.
Great care must be taken before any such person is received back into membership.
Stewardship.
2.4 Every member is expected to be a faithful steward and to give regularly as the Lord has blessed them of their time, talents, and substance for the work of Christ, primarily through the channel of the local church. It is expected that every member should contribute to the support of those called to leave in any degree a secular calling in order to serve the interests of Christ in the Church or as missionaries. Members are reminded not to neglect the poor or their own families.
Authority.
2.5 Every member is required to recognise and to submit to the spiritual authority of the Elders/Pastors as those who must give account to God for the souls of the flock.
Service.
2.6 Every member is expected to work together in love and humility with the other members of the body, each involved in some part of the work Christ has given to His Church. In particular it is the church’s responsibility to take the gospel to every person in its district, and to seek to encourage the establishment of gospel churches wherever there is an absence of the knowledge of Christ.
Temporary Removal.
2.7 Members moving from the area for a temporary period as in the case of students or working away from home shall remain under the pastoral care of the church and seek to regularly attend an approved gospel church.
Resignation.
2.8 If any member wishes to resign, application is to be made preferably in writing to the Elders/Pastors giving the reason. Resignation is to be regarded as a serious step and shall be reserved for cases of major doctrinal, disciplinary or associational disagreement in conformity to Scriptural teaching.
Holy Living.
2.9 Every member should seek to walk in the paths of holiness and thus contend with the world, the flesh, and the devil, lying prophets and all the many forms of apostasy.
The attention of every member is drawn to the following:-
- The danger of biblical knowledge without understanding.
- The danger of so called ‘modern’ translations / versions of the KJV Bible.
- The danger of the so called ‘ecumenical’ movement.
- The injunction that “women adorn themselves in modest apparel.” The principle, of course, applies equally to men.
- The powerful example of a Christian home where men love their wives, women love and obey their husbands, and children obey their parents.
- The sanctity of the Lord’s Day and its appointed time.
Marriage.
2.10 It is expected that members court and marry only believing partners, but that those converted subsequent to marriage should remain with their partner honouring and praying for them in accordance with God’s will. The summaries, of Scriptural teaching under this heading, found in the Savoy, Baptist and Westminster Confessions is ever to be consulted when necessary.