In both Old and New Testaments the concept of covenant takes a central role. Through covenant, God established a relationship with his people. Early in their history Baptists sought to express their relationship with God and with each other in terms of a covenanted relationship. They promised to walk together as disciples and to watch over each other in prayer.
As we gather today we will renew our commitment to do the same. A commitment to love God wholeheartedly and to love others as we want to be loved.
- We are called to be a worshipping community, offering all to God in prayer.
- We are called to be a missionary community, making known the redeeming love of God.
- We are called to be a sacrificial community, generously giving from all that God has given us.
- We are called to be an inclusive community, sharing the hospitality of God’s Kingdom with all.
- We are called to be a prophetic community, challenging powers that oppress and corrupt
As a Gospel people, let us covenant together before God and each other:
The covenant we share
As part of our covenant together we share a common vision to build a great church that honours and glorifies God; built on biblical principles; teaching biblical truth; influencing its community; where personal relationships are deep.
We share a common purpose to love people into a deep and growing relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and we share a common mission to know God and to make God known.
We share a common desire: to share God’s heart for the marginalised and oppressed.
All this is expressed through our life together as we gather for worship, ministry and mission.
We are: A people called and set apart by God, who gather together to worship him, serve each other and reach out to the world. We do not do this alone, but together as the community of faith.
Together we commit ourselves to:
Serve the mission of the church: By inviting others to join the journey of faith; by engaging in evangelism
Safeguard the unity of the church:By loving one another; by refusing to gossip; by engaging with and submitting to the decision-making processes of the church
Support the integrity of the church: By developing a servant heart; by living a life that honours Jesus Christ; by believing the statement of faith
Share the responsibility of the church: By giving regular financial support to the church; by attending regularly; by using my gifts to serve.
We pray our covenant prayer together
Covenant prayer
Heavenly Father,
We come today to covenant with you and with each other:
to watch over each other and to walk together before you in ways known and still to be made known.
We give ourselves again to you and to each other
to be bound together in fellowship, and to work together in the unity of the Spirit for the sake of God’s mission.
In our congregation, in local partnerships, in our association and in the wider Union,
we commit all that we have and are to fulfil God’s purposes of love.
Pour your Spirit upon us. Help us so to walk in your ways that the promises we make this day, and the life that we live together, may become an offering of love, our duty and delight truly glorifying to you – Father Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Wesley’s prayer (adapted and slightly modernised)
I am no longer my own, but yours O God.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,
exalted for you or brought low for you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you art mine, and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
Christ has many services to be done. Some are easy, others are difficult. Some bring honour, others bring reproach. Some are suitable to our natural inclinations and temporal interests, others are contrary to both... Yet the power to do all these things is given to us in Christ, who strengthens us.
