Church Covenant

As baptized believers in Christ and members of Old Carroll Church, our members pledge one to another to faithfully serve and obediently fulfill our obligations to the Lord and to one another.

The original, 1857 Old Carroll Church Covenant signed at the church’s constitution:

The Church of Jesus Christ in Carroll Co. in the State of Maryland.

Cordially receiving holding and maintaining the doctrines and ordinances of the Gospel as revealed clearly by Jesus Christ and his Apostles in the New Testament.

Rejecting both Arminianism and Absolute Predestinarinism, regarding both as equidistant from the Gospel scheme of Salvation, and wholly and entirely disconnected therewith.

Believing and avowing their belief in the most perspicuous language that the Eternal Salvation of sinners is the work of Jehovah under the threefold manifestations or characters of Father, Son, and Holy-ghost, which they consider as one.  Consequently they openly profess to all that they Live “In hope of Eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.”

The language of the Apostle addressed to the church at Ephesus they consider sufficiently expressive of their creed. (II Chap. 8.9.10 verses) “For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.  Not of works lest any man should boast.  For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

They regard good works as important and profitable to men placed in proper position.

Therefore they receive thankfully from the pulpit the often repeated admonishment “be ye careful to maintain good works for necessary uses.”

The above church when composed of only ten members erected a house of worship in their immediate neighborhood, which was dedicated on the fourth Lord’s day in September, the twenty-seventh day of the month in the year of our Lord One thousand Eight-hundred and fifty seven.

Elder Plummer Waters

The first ten members who constituted the Church when the meeting house was built.

Amos Davis

Samuel England

Samuel G Davis, Deacon

George H. Davis

Rachel Meridith

Lucretia G. Warfield

Susan England

Lydia Welsh

Cordelia Baker

Mrs. Nathan Clary

The current, Old Carroll Church Covenant for all of our members:

The Church of Jesus Christ being called Old Carroll Primitive Baptist Church, located in Point of Rocks, Frederick County, Maryland (formerly located in Carroll Co. in the State of Maryland).  Still holding and maintaining the doctrines and ordinances of the Gospel as revealed clearly by Jesus Christ and his Apostles in the New Testament.  Seeking to reaffirm our belief and covenant together as one body in Jesus Christ, do henceforth declare the following.

Forasmuch as Almighty God, by His grace, has been pleased to call us out of darkness into His marvelous light, and all of us have been baptized by immersion by an ordained elder upon a profession of our faith in Christ Jesus, we recognize both the privilege and the obligations of membership, and have given up ourselves to the Lord and to one another in a gospel church way, to be governed and guided by a proper discipline agreeable to the word of God: We do therefore in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by His power, covenant and agree to keep up the ordinances, doctrine, and discipline of the church we are members of in the most brotherly affection towards one another while we endeavor particularly to observe the following principles.

  • We promise to each other:
    • In our care for one another, to show brotherly love, to pray for each other, to watch over one another, to look over each other for good to edification, and, when need be, in the most tender and affectionate manner, to reprove one another. That is, if we discover anything amiss in a brother, to go and tell him his fault according to the direction given by our Lord (Matt. 18:15-17, Gal. 6:1-2).
    • That when we must go to our brother, we should be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in our deportment.
    • And if we must need be corrected that we would be slow to take offense, knowing our brother has our best interest at heart, and ready for reconciliation.
    • To not to be whispering, backbiting, or showing excessive anger, but rather exhorting and admonishing one another to good works, to seek not our own, but each the others’ welfare.
    • To pray for and encourage, to attend to our brother in sickness or despair, to walk showing a willingness to comfort and help, and likewise to rejoice with him, sharing his joy.
    • To be thoughtful of each other, kind and loving, to treat one another as family, requiring forbearance and forgiveness, for there are none who can attain perfection, and He instructed His disciples to pray to be forgiven even as they forgive others (Rom. 3:23, Matt. 6:14-15, Mar. 11:24-26).
    • We also agree to promote the spirituality and scriptural maturity of the saints. To strive for the advancement of our Church in godly knowledge and in all wisdom, holiness, and comfort.
  • We promise to the Lord:
    • We also agree, with God’s grace, attend our Church meetings, observe the Lord’s day and keep it holy, and not absent ourselves from the communion of the Lord’s Supper with the washing of the saints’ feet without a reasonable excuse; for the Church is of no benefit to members or to the world, if her members do not meet together.
    • We are to support the Church meetings because it is a service we owe God not man, and as such we shouldn’t allow anything to prevent us from attending; to absent ourselves without a reasonable excuse is to hold the service of God in contempt for the Lord knows the very thoughts and intents of the heart (Matt. 5:13, Rom. 12:1, Heb. 10:25).
    • Not to irregularly depart from the fellowship of the church, nor to remove to distant churches without a regular letter of dismissal and placing it in the Church where we reside; because we cannot fulfill these vows to one another if we are not together.
    • To be ready to communicate to the defraying of the church’s expenses and for the support of the ministry and the aid of those among us and our communities who are in need (I Cor. 9:9-11, II Cor. 9:7, Gal. 6:10, I Tim. 5:17-18).
    • To spend time in the reading and meditation of God’s word, and to be faithful in prayer.

That we might continue steadfast in this our covenant, no matter the trials and tribulations of this life, we humbly beg a daily supply of heavenly grace.  Having been chosen by the Father, recognizing the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and having been regenerated by the Spirit of God; on this profession of faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we do now in the presence of God, most solemnly and joyfully do in these things covenant and agree, to observe and keep sacred, to live out in our lives and show forth in our families and community with all prayer and humility, in the name of and by the assistance of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.