Church Membership
You don't need to be a church member to attend NBC nor do you need to be a formal member to be involved in a lot of our activities. Indeed, we have a lot of folk who are fully committed to NBC as their home church but who choose not to become members for a variety of reasons.
However, as a Baptist Church we must legally define and hold a list of all church members. Only church members can make key decisions in the life of the church such as appointing staff, making important financial decisions and recognising leaders. This is because Baptist Churches are legally constituted as congregational churches with the legal authority resting with the local church members and not the leadership or national Baptist Union staff.This is quite different from many other denominations where the legal authority rests with leaders/ministers or bishops rather thah the membership.
Under our current church constitution which was laid down when the church was formed, church members must be committed Christians, have been baptised as believers by immersion (unless medical reasons make this option not possible in which case sprinkling is used) and believe that NBC is where the Lord would have them make their spiritual home at this time. It is worth noting that these matters are under review and may change as we are currently re-writing our constitution.
We encourage all those who are committed to the church to become members so you can play a full part in the life of the church.
Membership applications involve a visit from two church members who will talk with you about what church membership entails. If everyone is happy that this is right for you they will then bring a recommendation to the next Church Members Meeting (we meet every two months). Once the membership have agreed to receive the person into membership, this will formally take place at the next Communion service.
If you would like to talk further about church membership please have a word with one of the leaders.
Church Members' Meetings
Meetings are held every two months in Jan, Mar, May (AGM), Jul, Sep and Nov on a Friday evening at 7.00pm in The Education Centre. They are usually the second Friday of the month but for exact dates see Take 5 or contact the Church Secretary as sometimes we have to move them a week because of other events etc.
