October 1, 2026
FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – Receiving members from churches of other denominations can cause Baptist pastors stress. Conversations about baptism, the theology of their previous churches, and their willingness to abide by a Baptist church covenant all have the potential to offend.
But for one Fort Worth, Texas, man, a membership process that might initially have seemed finicky led to eternal life. Formerly a Roman Catholic, the 30-year-old law school student visited Trinity River Baptist Church and asked to join.
The membership process was rigorous. He was required to attend four class sessions, fill out a membership application, interview with an elder, and be voted on by the congregation. “Through that process, he recognized that he was not a Christian. Through the witness of this church trying to get to know him, and individual members asking additional questions, he was converted,” Trinity River pastor Ben Lacey said.
Trinity River is among a growing number of Baptist churches that say sanctified scrupulousness in receiving members – including those from other denominations – is a matter of obeying Christ and loving people.
“It’s not splitting hairs,” Lacey said of Trinity River’s careful membership process. “I think it’s really trying to labor to do what Jesus told us to do. And the best way to love people is by doing what He says.”
Denominational divides
Debates over receiving members from other groups are nothing new. Two centuries after Jesus’ death and resurrection, a group called the Novationists “wanted a purer church” and required rebaptism of those who had been baptized by pastors they considered unqualified, said Lloyd Harsch, professor of church history and Baptist studies at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. For the Novationists, correct baptism was necessary to be part of a true church.
Two centuries later, a group called the Donatists rejected baptisms performed by clergy whom they considered unworthy because, under persecution, they had surrendered Scriptures, even heretical ones, to be destroyed.
Sixteenth-century Anabaptists “shifted to believer’s baptism” and required it of all Christians joining them from other groups, Harsch said. Baptists also required believer’s baptism when they emerged in the 17th century. Some went further still.
Antebellum Southern Baptist pastor J.L. Dagg, for example, argued that baptism of a believer by immersion still was not scriptural if performed by a minister who believed in infant baptism. “Every enlightened and conscientious candidate,” he wrote in “Manual of Church Order,” may “well doubt the propriety of uniting with such a minister in a service about which they are so little agreed.”
Landmark Baptists of the 19th century claimed ordinations and baptisms performed by any non-Baptist were unscriptural and invalid. Landmark influence persists as some Southern Baptist churches still believe “the only true Christians are our group – Baptists, or perhaps even just Southern Baptists,” Harsch said.
Yet that is not the norm. Recent data suggests many Southern Baptist churches have loosened membership standards. In 2025, average Southern Baptist worship attendance lagged nearly 8 million behind the recorded Southern Baptist church membership of 12.3 million.
Still, delineation of church membership standards may be making a comeback. More than 8 in 10 American churchgoers say they are members of the church they attend, according to a 2024 Lifeway Research survey.
What issues keep the rest of regular church attendees from becoming church members? Sometimes the challenge of transitioning from another denomination is the issue for prospective members at Rich Pond Baptist Church in Bowling Green, Ky.
Every prospective member at Rich Pond spends two hours with a pastor discussing the church’s doctrine and practice, including its affirmation of The Baptist Faith and Message, which defines a church as “an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers.” The discussion includes ensuring the prospective member has been baptized scripturally – as a believer in Christ by immersion.
“We have received immersed Methodists before,” Rich Pond pastor Steve Hussung said. One prospective member “was a wonderful godly man who had believer’s baptism, but it was by sprinkling in a Lutheran church.” After some discussion, “he regretted not insisting that [the Lutherans] immerse him.” He was baptized.
Rich Pond attempts to ascertain what a prospective member’s baptizing church believed about baptism, Hussung said, because “church authority matters.” Baptism is not merely a matter of determining what the individual believed when they were baptized.
Often, Rich Pond does not accept baptisms performed by Campbellite congregations – from the Christian Church, Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ traditions – because they typically believe baptism plays a role in a person’s salvation. Occasionally, the church accepts the baptism of a believer with a Campbellite background if the person says their church held a biblical view of baptism.
‘Commitment to Christ’
“I have definitely lost prospective members in interviews when it became apparent that a baptism was going to be required,” Hussung said. But getting baptism and church membership right are important because Jesus “commands it, and it is a public display of faith and commitment to Christ.”
Baptism can be a challenging issue for Lacey too. Trinity River, he said, requires baptism of prospective members who "were baptized in non-gospel preaching churches,” as infants or before they became followers of Jesus.
“There are a lot of Church of Christ folks in this area,” he said. “We have had to ask, ‘Did the church that baptized you think they were saving you when they baptized you?’ Sometimes people say yes, and we don’t count that as a baptism because that’s not baptism. Baptism can’t save you.”
Lacey admits that Trinity River’s lengthy membership process differs from the experiences of some believers in Acts who were baptized immediately after placing their faith in Christ. But he says the different cultural contexts of first-century Jerusalem and 21st-century Fort Worth call for different processes.
On the Day of Pentecost, the crowd listening to Peter’s sermon understood baptism was a profession of faith in the man crucified 50 days earlier, Lacey said. Today’s Fort Worth “is a very different context. A lot of people think they’re a Christian because they have been raised in church” or “have been baptized.” They need extended explanation of salvation by faith in Christ, baptism, and the church’s role in a believer’s life.
Of course, not all Baptist churches agree on where to draw lines about valid baptisms and what a membership process should look like. Hussung and Lacey agree such differences should not inhibit cooperation among Bible-believing churches. They also agree that membership standards can err either on the side of being too tight or too loose.
Yet warm-hearted biblical rigor pays dividends. It has for Trinity River, where on occasion the church’s explanation of Baptist distinctives changes lives and families.
That’s what happened with a west Texas man from a church of Christ background, who moved to Fort Worth and sought membership at Trinity River. He told Lacey his church believed baptism contributed to his salvation, and Lacey replied, “I’m not trying to judge your upbringing … but that’s not baptism.”
The man “read the Scriptures and said, ‘Wow. I think you’re right,’” Lacey said. “He has gotten baptized, he’s a thriving member of our church, and he’s now having a conversation with his parents and helping them see” that a different church would be healthier spiritually.
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This article appeared in Baptist Press.
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