About Membership

We love church membership at First Baptist Durango! We believe membership is an important step in the life of a Christian as we move from simply attending a church to intentionally committing ourselves to a particular local body of believers.

Throughout the New Testament, Christians are called to live out the many “one anothers” of Scripture—loving, encouraging, serving, forgiving, bearing burdens, and pursuing Christ together. Membership is a meaningful way of saying, “This is the church family I am committing myself to love, serve, and walk alongside.”

Membership also brings the blessing of intentional spiritual care and oversight from our elders, along with the encouragement, accountability, and support of the broader church family. It isn’t about earning a higher status or joining a club; it’s about belonging to a local expression of Christ’s body and committing ourselves to follow Jesus together.

If First Baptist Durango is your church home, we would love for you to consider taking this important step!

Membership Commitments

• Having been brought, by God’s grace, to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we now, depending upon the Holy Spirit, establish this covenant with one another.
• In all we do, we will aim to glorify and enjoy God forever. The one from whom and through whom and to whom are all things: to Him be all glory forever!
• We seek, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind. We will seek to love one another and our neighbor as ourselves. We will seek, by the grace of God, to be ministers of reconciliation, making disciples of all nations by the power of the Spirit.
• We will seek to eagerly maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace by walking together in Gospel community. By the power of the Spirit, we will encourage one another in the gospel, speaking the truth in love to spur one another on to love and good deeds. We will seek to be slow to take offense and put away bitterness, anger and injurious speech. We will walk together with love, humility, patience and gentleness. We will be a people of forgiveness; forgiving each other, even as God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven us. We will remember one another in prayer; to aid one another in sickness and distress.
• We will train our children in the instruction of the Lord, seeking to walk in a way that adorns the gospel of Christ before our family, friends, and neighbors.
• We will strive to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, as we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
• We will not neglect to gather together, but will support and treasure the biblical preaching of the whole counsel of God, the faithful observance of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and the loving exercise of church discipline.
• We will contribute cheerfully and generously to the financial expenses of the church ministry, the relief of the poor within and without, and the advancement of the gospel both to our neighbors and the nations.
• We will, when we move from Durango, unite as soon as possible with another local church body where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s Word.
• In all these things, we rely on our God who has made a new and everlasting covenant with us, saying: “They shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them… I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good . . . with all my heart and all my soul.” (Jer. 32:38-41)
• In and because of Jesus we pray, Amen.

I understand that being a member of First Baptist Church of Durango means that I will pursue these commitments dependent upon the grace of God in relationship with other members all for the glory of God. In principle, I understand the statement of faith, the secondary position papers and the expressed teaching document. I will not purposely undermine the teaching therein, through word or conduct.