Membership

JOY shall consist of persons who have experienced salvation through personal faith in Christ and therefore have gone through the procedure for membership prescribed under article 4.1.Any person seeking membership in this local church shall show evidence of salvation through personal faith in Christ and that this profession is genuine by Scriptural experience of conversion.

PROCEDURE FOR MEMBERSHIP

Membership in JOY shall be obtained as follows:

Evidence that a person has experienced salvation through personal faith in Christ;
Baptism by immersion following repentance toward God and faith in Christ;
Willingness to submit to the teaching and government of the church.
Willingness to present oneself publicly before the church during worship service.
Transfer from a Baptist church or aBible-believing church of like faith and practice after a thoroughinvestigation by a qualified counselor and enrolled in the Pre-Baptismal class.

Transfer from Non-Baptist Church

A candidate from another denomination will be interviewed by the pastor/ or trained counselor to ascertain the genuineness of candidate‟s conversion and baptism experience. Based on the results, the candidate may be enrolled in (a) the Pre-Baptismal class if there is doubt about his or her conversion or had not received baptism by immersion, (b) the New Member‟s Orientation Class, if there is evidence of genuine conversion. (The pre-baptismal and new member‟s orientation classes are described in the Church Manual.)

Transfer from a Baptist Church

By profession of faith and letter of transfer from another Baptist church. Such a candidate will be interviewed by the pastor or a trained counselor and may be enrolled in the New Member‟s Orientation Class. However, where there is doubt about his/

Re-Admission

An excommunicated person may request for restoration of membership. Such a person shall make his/her desire public by responding to the invitation for church membership and will be counseled by the pastor or deacon or a counselor for a period of time. The counselor shall make recommendation for such a person‟s re-admission before the membership is confirmed by the majority vote of the members‟ present