Membership in the United Methodist Church is a call to participate as part of a fellowship of followers of Jesus Christ who seek to make the world more like the Kingdom of God.
When we become professing members of a United Methodist congregation, we profess our faith in God, our desire to live as disciples of Jesus Christ, and our commitment to join with our church community to keep the vows of our Baptismal Covenant.
One of those vows is to faithfully participate in the life and ministries of our local congregation through our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness.
Those desiring to become professing members of a United Methodist congregation respond to a series of questions:
- They are first asked to renounce wickedness, evil, and sin, and to accept the freedom and power of God to resist evil, injustice, and oppression.
- Then they are asked if they confess Jesus Christ as their Savior, and trust and serve him as their Lord.
- The next question asks each to promise to remain a faithful member of Christ’s church, and to serve as his representative in the world.
Then, together with the congregation, all profess the Christian faith as contained in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, based on the Apostles’ Creed.
