In 1853 Baptist pastor and publisher John Newton Brown published The Baptist Church Manual, a book intended for new and potential church members to teach them about what Baptist churches believe, how they operate, and the obligations that members agree to when joining a local fellowship. This book is still in print today and over one million copies have been printed to date. He included the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, an important statement of faith that became very popular among Baptists in the northern United States, rules of order to govern and direct church business, forms of church letters, and a suggested church covenant. It was this suggested covenant, written in 1853 that the members of Emmanuel Baptist Church accepted when they signed the charter to organize as a church in May of 1966. For 52 years this covenant has served to instruct the members of this church as to the sacred commitments they made when they joined the body, and it is a beautiful and concise expression of our mutual obligations as brothers and sisters in Christ.
I found a copy of Brown’s suggested covenant in Paul Jackson’s The Doctrine and Administration of the Church, a book that was published in 1968, just shortly after EBC became a church. Jackson includes a copy of Brown’s covenant and then offers his own revised version, in his words, “updating terms and emphases.” And if the terms and emphases of Brown’s 1853 covenant were in need of being updated in 1968, then it seems even more likely that they could benefit from an update in 2018. That is not to say that anything found in Brown’s covenant is incorrect or unbiblical, just that it is not necessarily clear or easily understood by current or prospective members of EBC, and it may not speak to our current situation as effectively as it did to Baptists in the 19th century.
With that in mind, I propose a 2018 revision of the EBC church covenant that I believe will speak more clearly to both our current and future members, so that we may all understand and embrace our spiritual obligation to one another in Christ. Rather than being an indictment of the former members who chose the first covenant, it is an attempt to honor their wisdom and faithfulness with a covenant which seeks to maintain the same commitment to devotion, love for God, and service to others, and to communicate it in such a way that we may all wholeheartedly affirm it and follow its instruction. By this covenant, I pray that we may set an example of faithful holiness for generations to come.
2018 Revised Covenant
Having been brought by God’s grace to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and having been baptized in his name upon the profession of our faith, we do now, with his gracious aid, solemnly and joyfully renew our covenant with each other.
We will walk together in brotherly love, exercising Christian care and watchfulness over each other, faithfully warning, rebuking, and admonishing one another as the case may require, and seeking reconciliation whenever necessary. We will not neglect our regular gatherings nor our duty to pray for ourselves and others. We will share in each other’s joys and bear each other’s burdens with tenderness and sympathy.
We will endeavor to bring up such as may be under our care in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and by a pure and loving example seek the salvation of our family and friends. We will seek to live wisely in this world, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts as we pursue holiness in the fear of God.
We will support a faithful gospel ministry in this church by participating in its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines, and by contributing cheerfully and regularly to support its ministry and the spread of the gospel to all nations. We will, when we move from this place, 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.