The Bible itself, as the inspired and infallible Word of God that speaks with final authority concerning truth, morality, and the proper conduct of mankind, is the sole and final source of all that we believe. For purposes of Mt. Olive Baptist Church’s faith, doctrine, practice, policy, and discipline, our congregation is the church’s final interpretive authority on the Bible’s meaning and application.

We resolve by the aid of the Holy Spirit to walk together in Christian love; to grow in knowledge, holiness, and mutual edification in order to accomplish its mission; to utilize spiritual gifts as the Holy Spirit ordains; to sustain its corporate worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines; to contribute cheerfully and obediently to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations.

We also engage to maintain family and personal devotions; to raise up our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord; to seek the salvation of our relatives and friends; to walk carefully in the world; to be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in our Christian behavior; to avoid all tattling, backbiting, and excessive anger; to heed the warnings of Scripture not to sin by placing a stumbling block in a fellow Christian’s path, we pledge to abstain from all recreational use of intoxicating and mind-altering substances that lower one’s resistance to sin and prevent the filling of the Holy Spirit; to be zealous in our efforts to advance the Kingdom of our Savior.

We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female. These two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God. Rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person. We believe that the term “marriage” has only one meaning: the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture. We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage. We believe that any form of sexual immorality, including but not limited to pornography, is sinful and offensive to God. We will seek to preserve the gift of marriage and agree to walk through the steps of marriage reconciliation before pursuing divorce.

We believe that all human life is sacred and created by God in His image. Human life is of inestimable worth in all its dimensions, including pre-born babies, the aged, the physically or mentally challenged, and every other stage or condition from conception through natural death. We are therefore called to defend, protect, and value all human life.

Relationships are the heart of the church. Sin separates us from God and from each other. We will, therefore, cultivate a lifestyle of continual repentance and confession. Members of the church agree to submit any legal dispute with the church for mediation before a mutually agreed-upon mediator. Lawsuits between believers, or threats of lawsuits between believers, are a matter of grave concern for the church, are contrary to biblical and church teaching, and mediation is an effort to resolve disputes in a biblical fashion. We will further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember one another in prayer; to aid one another in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and Christian courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay. We moreover engage that when we remove from this place we will, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s Word.