Our Covenant

We, members of New Hope Family Church, hereby covenant with each other before God:

To be family, to be committed to each other, to love, accept and forgive each other until death or until God's call causes us to part;

To live for Jesus Christ and take His commands seriously;

To help each other grow towards Christian maturity by bearing burdens, by encouraging, exhorting and praying, by confessing our sins, by speaking truth in love and admonishing each other, by living in peace together and treating each other with respect, by fully caring for the church and gladly exercising our spiritual gifts, by being kind and tenderhearted and devoted, and by accepting and forgiving and loving each other;

To invite others to pray for us, to teach and correct us, and--if necessary--to rebuke us in an attitude of gentleness and humility should we stray from Christ's commands, for what we desire most is to serve our Lord;

To bring honor to the body of Jesus Christ and to maintain a firm and faithful testimony.

To strengthen ourselves in this resolve, we submit to each other and to the discipline of the church, understanding how discipline must always be for the loving purpose of restoration into fellowship both with God and with the covenant community in accordance with Matthew 18.

We acknowledge today this sacred oath because we have the collective purpose of obeying the Lord Jesus, and because we know how deeply we depend upon each other's help to fulfill this commitment.

As Disciples of Christ, we affirm our trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our Author-and-Creator Father, who revealed himself most fully through the Incarnation in the very person of Jesus the Son, our Messiah and Redeemer.

Since He has freely extended to us His promises and blessings, out of wonder and love and holiness, we joyfully accept and lift up this covenant as our reasonable service, confirming we should do nothing less.

Help us all in this resolve, Father, for we rely on your grace, and hold tight to your assurance that there is indeed no condemnation for those of us who are alive in Christ Jesus. Amen