We are a faith family devoted to helping one another love Jesus, grow in Jesus, and make disciples of Jesus in Birmingham and among all nations.
Our Local Disciple-Making ministries exist to care for our members in biblical community, help them grow in their faith, and equip and mobilize them to make other disciples together.
Our goal is to be a faith family of world-impacting disciples who are partnering with our brothers and sisters here in Birmingham and around the world to produce ever-multiplying churches all around our city, this country, and to the ends of the earth.
We offer all kinds of resources we produce, use, or recommend to equip both our faith family and other churches.
There are two stories it’s important for every Christian to know and be able to tell: God’s story of the gospel and our story of how God brought us to hear and believe the gospel. This assignment is designed to help you review and articulate both. If you are completing this assignment in preparation for your baptism in addition to membership, this will help you write your testimony that you will read in front of the church when you are baptized.
Please complete all of the following fields and submit your responses by clicking the button at the bottom of this page. You may find it helpful to utilize a piece of paper or a separate word processor to help you formulate your answers before populating the fields. If you will be unable to complete the assignment in one sitting, please save your answers elsewhere because you WILL NOT be able to save them on this form and come back to complete it.
The gospel is the true story of God’s good news for the world recorded within the pages of the Bible. For each of the five sections of God’s Story below, read the biblical passages and biblical truth, and then utilizing what you’ve read, answer the question prompts in the space provided.
Biblical Passages: Genesis 1:1; Genesis 1:26-31; Psalm 8:3-5; Psalm 90:2; Romans 1:20
Biblical Truth: The one, true, holy, and eternal God created everything in the universe. Everything he made was good and existed in perfect harmony. God made man and woman in his image and gave them a home where they could live in loving relationship with one another and with him.
Biblical Passages: Romans 1:18, 25; Romans 3:10; Romans 3:20; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:1-3
Biblical Truth: Adam and Eve gave into temptation and disobeyed God’s command. Disobedience of God is sin. We all sin. No one is innocent. As a result, we have all broken our relationship with God. No matter how hard we try or how much good we attempt to do, no one can do enough right to make up for all of the wrong in our lives, and everyone is deserving of God’s just judgment.
Biblical Passages: Luke 2:10-11; John 1:1-5, 14; John 14:6-7; Romans 5:8-10; Ephesians 2:4-9
Biblical Truth: God promised one day someone would come to rescue humankind from sin. God kept his promise when he came himself. He became human in the person of Jesus. Fully God and fully man, Jesus lived a sinless life, died on the cross to pay the penalty all sinners deserve, and then rose again from the grave in victory over death. In this display of mercy and grace, God demonstrated his love and made a way for humankind to be restored to right relationship and new life with him through faith in Jesus Christ.
Biblical Passages: Proverbs 28:13; Mark 1:15; John 6:47; Acts 2:38-39; Romans 8:1-2, 12-16; Ephesians 2:10
Biblical Truth: Everyone who hears God’s gospel will respond by either embracing his story and receiving his rescue or by rejecting him and continuing to live our own way confined by our own sin. We receive God’s rescue when we respond to his call to repent and believe. When we repent, we turn from our sin, recognizing our offense against God and rejecting both our self-centeredness and our self-righteousness, and we turn to God, asking for his forgiveness and submitting to his correction. When we believe, we do more than say the right things about Jesus. We actually trust, deep down in our hearts, that Jesus' death and resurrection was enough to rescue us and make us right with God forever, and we commit to follow Jesus, striving to be more like him. The moment we do so, we become a part of God’s family and his Spirit begins to live within us.
Biblical Passages: Psalm 16:11; John 3:16; John 14:2-3; John 17:1-3; Revelation 21:1-5a
Biblical Truth: God also promised to make all things new. He will make a new heaven and a new earth completely free from sin where everything will be restored to the way it was meant to be. The most wonderful thing about this new world is that all those God has rescued by grace through faith in Jesus will live there with him forever, experiencing complete joy and fellowship with the One who created, loved, and died to rescue us. Until then, God calls each of us to be storytellers, to share with everyone around us and around the world what he has done so they might know that God’s story is meant to be their story, too.
We all have a story to tell: how we came to know and believe and be changed forever by God’s story. The details may be different, but the parts are all the same. When we tell our story we glorify God, point others to Jesus, rely on the Holy Spirit, encourage brothers and sisters in the faith, and invite others to join us in the gracious and merciful blessings of God’s story.
Use the prompts below to identify the unique details of the major parts of your story with God.
Use your responses above to write a coherent version of your story that could easily be told to others. Utilize the movements of Creation, Fall, Rescue, Restoration, and Response in the crafting of your story.
To prepare for your baptism, you’ll want to work together with an elder or deacon (staff member, small group leader, or another ministry leader) to ensure the clarity of your story.
When writing your story for baptism, do your best to limit your length to around 250 words. Begin by stating your name and your age and close with why you desire to be baptized and the statement: “Today I confess to the church and to all the world that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.”
Example: God gave me parents who were Christians and who raised me in the church and taught me about God. I considered myself a Christian because they did and pretty much everyone else around me did, too, but it didn’t make too much difference in my life. My freshman year in college, however, could be summed up in one word: do. I found myself in a place where I wanted to live a life for God in some way, but I thought that if I did things “right,” I could earn favor with him and be accepted by him. Then I was introduced to Jesus. It wasn’t the first time, but this time was different. I discovered that Christianity is not about what I do; it’s about what Jesus has done. He paid the debt for my sin that I could never pay. By dying on the cross and rising again, he paid the penalty for my rebellion against God. I trusted in Christ and repented of my sins before a holy God. I wish I could say that since then, my life has been perfect, but, of course, it has not. However, no matter what I might face, how much I might stumble, or how hard I might fall, God is always there with me to comfort and guide me. He continuously and consistently grows me to be more and more who he created me to be. And because I’ve experienced his faithfulness to me over and over and over, my faith is even stronger as I look toward the future, trusting that whatever may come, he will work it all together for my good and for his glory.
Baptism Example: My name is John Smith and I am 32-years-old. God gave me parents who were Christians and who raised me in the church and taught me about God. I considered myself a Christian because pretty much everyone else around me did, but it didn’t make much difference in my life. I just tried to be good and do good things so he’d accept me.. No matter how hard I tried, though, I would constantly fail. I was trapped in a cycle of sin, and I couldn’t find a way out. Then I was introduced to Jesus. It wasn’t the first time, but this time was different. I discovered that Christianity is not about what I do; it’s about what Jesus has done. By dying on the cross and rising again, he paid the penalty for my rebellion against God and showed how much God loves me. I trusted in Christ and repented of my sins. I wish I could say my life has been perfect since then, but, of course, it has not. However, no matter what I might face, how much I might stumble, or how hard I might fall, God is always there with me to comfort and guide me. He grows me to be more and more who he created me to be. And because I’ve experienced his faithfulness to me over and over and over, my faith is even stronger as I look toward the future. Now, I want to be baptized to follow Jesus’ example and command. Today I confess to the church and to all the world that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.
As members of the body of Christ, we are called to serve and not just be served. Let us help you take the next step in finding your place of service!
Please Note: Filling out this form allows us to pass your contact information to the selected ministries below for further follow up of what serving in their ministry may look like.
Which places of ministry/service interest you most? Check up to 3 areas below. (This is NOT a commitment to serve with these ministries, simply an opportunity for you to learn more about serving from a ministry leader. A leader will contact you to give you more information following your finalized membership.)
