Having been brought by God’s sovereign grace to repent and believe in the good news of Jesus Christ and to give up ourselves to Him, and having been baptized upon our profession of faith, in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, we do now, relying on His grace, solemnly and joyfully affirm our covenant with each other. (Jn 6:63; 16:7-11; 1:12; 1 Thess 2:13; Acts 2:41; 8:38; Matt 28:19; 1 Cor 12:12-13; Acts 2:42) 

 We will pray and labor to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, devoted to the glory of God, resting in the gospel of His Son, and dependent upon the work of the Holy Spirit. (Eph 4:1-3) 

To that end, 

 We will not forsake assembling together, but will faithfully attend our corporate worship, treasuring our church’s weekly opportunity to sing, pray, and receive the whole counsel of God’s Word. We will defend and maintain a gospel-centered ministry by upholding and attending to biblical preaching, the administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of church discipline. (Heb 10:23-25; Eph 6:18; 1 Thess 5:17, 25) 

 We will walk together in brotherly love, as becomes the members of a local church: we will pray for and serve one another, exercise an affectionate care and watchfulness over each other, and reject all opportunities to speak or hear gossip or slander. We will instead seek to encourage one another and build each other up in the faith. (Rom 12:10, 16:17-18; Gal 6:1-2; Matt 18:15-17; Jas 5:19-20; Col 3:16; Heb 3:12-13; 1 Thess 5:11; 1 Cor 5) 

 We will commit “to reform our families, engaging ourselves to a conscientious care to set before us and to maintain the worship of God in them; and to walk in our houses with perfect hearts in a faithful discharge of all domestic duties, educating, instructing, and charging our children and households to keep the ways of the Lord.” (1677 Church Covenant Dorchester, Massachusetts) (Deut 6:6-7; Josh 24:15; Pro 22:6; Eph 6:4; Col 3:16; Ps 101:2; 1 Tim 3:4-5)

 We will rejoice with those who rejoice and endeavor with tenderness and sympathy to bear each other’s burdens and sorrows. We will be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay. We will aid one another in sickness and distress, and we will cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and Christian courtesy in speech. (Rom 12:15; Gal 6:2) 

 We will seek, by Divine aid, to live carefully in the world, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and remembering that, as we have been voluntarily buried by baptism and raised again from the symbolic grave, so there is on us a special obligation now to lead a new and holy life. (Eph 5:15; Tit 2:12; Rom 6:4; 1 Thess 4:7; 1 Pet 1:13-25) 

 We will seek to promote the prosperity and spirituality of the church; to sustain its worship, ordinances, doctrines and discipline. We will contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of our local church, to the care of our members, and to the spread of the gospel locally and to all nations. (Eph 2:21-22; Heb 10:25; Matt. 28:19-20; 1 Cor 11:24-34; Rom 16:17; 2 Thess 3:6; 1 Cor 5; Acts 2:42; 2 Jn 1:9-11; Matt 10:10; Gal 6:6; Mal 3:8-10; Acts 11:29; 2 Cor 8:1-5, Lk 24:46-48; Acts 1:8)

 We will submit to the leadership of elders who have been entrusted by God to serve and are for this body by teaching the Word of Christ to us and modeling the character of Christ before us, and we will affirm deacons as leading servants in the church. (1 Tim 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9)

 We will, if 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 teaching of God’s Word. (Acts 18:27-28; Rom 16:1-2; 1 Cor 15:58; Col 3:23; Heb 10:24-25)

 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. (2 Cor 13:14)

 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)