Full membership
All elders subscribe to the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (2LBCF), with liberty for minor exceptions stated in the membership application. Full member churches hold voting privileges, with one vote per church.
Governing Document
The NVRBC Constitution
The association's membership requirements, local church responsibilities, and procedures for shared work.
Read the full constitution
The complete document, including the confessional subscription requirement.
Distinctives
What marks this association
Four commitments govern how the churches of NVRBC labor together.
- The 1689 Confession
- Church plants must substantially agree with and adopt the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith as their confession of faith.
- Church autonomy
- The highest degree of church authority rests with the elders of each local church. There is no binding authority over those elders apart from the authority of Scripture, and the association may not make decisions that interfere with local church autonomy.
- Local church oversight
- Ministers of the Gospel must be sent; no man appoints himself an elder. Church planters are accountable to one sending church, not to NVRBC, and funding is sent through that sending church.
- Church cooperation
- Churches offer advice and, at their own discretion, resources for church-planting efforts, working to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Membership
Two categories of membership
Associate membership
Churches whose elders do not all subscribe to the 2LBCF may pursue associate membership with the consent of all their elders. They support the work and enjoy the fellowship of NVRBC, meet every other membership requirement, and do not hold voting privileges.
Membership Requirements
Requirements for membership
Required statement subscriptions
- Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy
- Nashville Statement
- FIRE Statement on CRT
- A plurality of elders, with allowance for churches that have only one elder for a season.
- All elders subscribe to the 2LBCF, with liberty for minor exceptions stated in the membership application.
- Elders who demonstrate God-honoring character.
- Willingness to use church resources, at each church's discretion, for church planting and support.
- Participation in the yearly assembly of church officers.
- Initial approval by at least three-quarters of the member churches.
In Summary
How the association works
Church messengers
Each member church designates two elders as messengers. Every church carries one vote, and a quorum is a simple majority of the churches present.
Church planters
A planter must exhibit the qualities of a biblically qualified elder, substantially adhere to the 2LBCF, and, under normal circumstances, possess or be working toward a seminary degree.
Church planting process
A sending church communicates its intent to the member churches, who may meet the planter and his wife. The sending church holds oversight, accountability, and fiscal responsibility; other churches may contribute funds, people, or skills. The goal is eventual independence, recognizing that some rural churches may never be fully self-supporting.
Church support and revitalization
Where a rural congregation cannot support itself, member churches may support its pastor financially, or send a pastor to an existing church with the hope that the 2LBCF will in time be adopted.
The yearly assembly
Officers of the churches assemble each year, ordinarily on the Tuesday of the fourth week of May, for pastoral addresses, church reports, prayer, formal business, and a church planter highlight.
Moderator
A moderator is appointed each year by simple majority to arrange and facilitate meetings, set agendas, and call for votes. The role carries no authority over the association.
Removal and suspension
Churches may withdraw at any time by letter. Removal (for doctrinal change, unresolved moral failure, prolonged absence from the assembly, or dissolution) follows a three-month investigation and requires a two-thirds vote, as does suspension. Removed churches may reapply.
Confessional Subscription
Christ’s church is by definition a confessing church, and the common confession of our churches is the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689.
Full membership requires that elders maintain substantial subscription to the system of doctrine expressed in the Confession, with liberty and charity over minor matters of wording, application, and nuance. Any reservations must be stated in the membership application and approved by the member churches.