Church Membership

Church membership is a vital part of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we at Mt. Pisgah want to accomplish two things:


Make membership simple.

Make membership meaningful.


People may join Mt. Pisgah for a few reasons. Maybe you're a new believer in Jesus and need to connect to a church for the first time. Or maybe you became a Christian earlier in life and never joined a church. Or you may want to transfer your membership from another church.


Whatever your reason, we're glad you're here. Membership at Mt. Pisgah rests on three things:


A profession of faith.

A baptism by immersion.

A new member's class (Next Steps).


Once these three things are accounted for, the deacons (church leaders) acknowledge you as a member of Mt. Pisgah.

Profession of Faith

We believe that each person must confess that Jesus is Lord to be saved. Romans 10:9-11 says that, "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, 'Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.'” 


What does a believer need to confess? Simple: I am a sinner who has offended a just and holy God. Because he is perfect, I cannot know him fully unless he acts first. He did just that, by sending his Son to take the punishment that my sin deserves. By Jesus's obedience to the Father, he is Lord. I believe that he is Lord of my own life.

Baptism

Baptism is a very old practice, one that Jews practiced before Christianity. It was a ritual symbolizing being clean in God's presence. Christians baptize today for similar reasons, but it goes even deeper.


Jesus tells all future believers that they should be baptized as a way of identifying with him. They should be baptized in the name of the Father,  the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:16-20).


Our baptism also symbolizes the physical and spiritual death that all of humanity faces apart from God. But as we come up out of the water, we are reminded as we make a public act that even though we will one day die physically, we will be resurrected just like our Savior, Jesus Christ (Romans 6:3-4).


As Baptists, we believe that the clear biblical teaching is that baptism is for those who have made a confession of faith. The consistent biblical witness is that immersion is normative, barring any outstanding reason a person could not be immersed.

Next Steps

Next Steps is our class for new members and those who are interested in learning more about either Mt. Pisgah or the Christian faith. It is also a prerequisite for membership so that all members know what we believe and why.


Next Steps meets regularly so that those who have made professions of faith and have been baptized recently can go through the class together. We meet at various times to accommodate different schedules, but we announce these dates and times well in advance.