Baptism and Church Membership

Jesus’ last instruction to His disciples on earth was to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20). We believe baptism is, then, an important public statement of a person’s decision to live for Jesus. Far from being a meaningless ritual, baptism is symbolic of a believer’s identification and participation with Christ and publicly demonstrates the spiritual reality that they have being raised from death to life (Rom 6:3–5).