The Free Will Baptist Church Covenant was devised by early Free Will Baptists to help members be more responsible to Christ, one another and Christian obligations. It created a balance between practice and faith, conduct and doctrine, actions and words. The covenant was a collection of written promises member made to one another and God. It dealt with spiritual and moral commitments, faith and conduct, and relationships.
Free Will Baptists have written and adopted many church covenants. Most adopt the Church Covenant proposed by the National Association of Free Will Baptists.
Benjamin Randall, founder of the New Durham Free Will Baptist Church in New Hampshire (often referred to as the Ridge Church or Church on the Ridge), wrote the following covenant in 1780:
We do now declare that we have given ourselves to God; and do now agree to give ourselves to each other in love and fellowship; and do also agree to take the scriptures of truth for the rule of our faith and practice, respecting our duty toward God, our neighbors, and ourselves.
We do promise to practice all the commands in the New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so far as they are now, or shall be made known to us by the light of the Holy Spirit of truth, without which, we are sensible, we cannot attain to the true knowledge thereof.
We also promise to bear each other’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Love, which is the law of Christ. We do further agree to give liberty for the improvement of the gifts of the brethren, and to keep up the worship of God, and not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is.
We do likewise further agree not to receive any person into fellowship, except they give a satisfactory evidence of a change in life and heart; and also promise to submit to the order of the gospel as above. Amen.
About the Writer: David Joslin (deceased) served for many years as the chairman of the Free Will Baptist Historical Commission
