About Our Church

Who We Are:    Watts Street Baptist Church is a Christian community seeking to continue the ministry of Jesus. Here we seek to live out our faith through active mission involvement in this community and beyond. We seek to undergird that mission with vital ministries of worship, education, and caring community. Within this community, women serve equally with men in all areas of our church's life. As a Baptist congregation, we are committed to historic Baptist principles: the authority of the Bible, the priesthood of all believers, believer's baptism, local church autonomy, and the separation of church and state. We also hold an ecumenical vision, joining hands with the wider Christian Community in witness and mission. What else is there to know about the Watts Street Baptist Church? Worship:    a worshipping body. Our worship services are designed as offerings to God from the clergy, the choir and the congregation. Through praise, prayer, hearing and responding to the Word, we meet God and prepare ourselves to be Christ's servants in the world. We manifest our ties with church tradition and the worldwide faith community through observance fo the seasons of the Christian year and use of the common lectionary. A skilled and sensitive music ministry enriches our worship, offering styles and literature drawn from the great treasury of music of the Christian church. Education:    a learning church. Our intention is to help one another continue to learn the Story of God's way with humankind as told in Scripture and in the lives of God's people. We offer Sunday Church School classes for all ages. Ministry with children includes choirs, worship education, retreats, and mission opportunities. Ministry with Youth combines choir, mission projects, study, recreation and retreats, discipleship training, plus week-long camps and mission trips in the summer. Adult ministry opportunities include short-term study groups, support groups, retreats, and leadership workshops. We serve as a teaching church for student interns from the Baptist House of Studies at Duke University Divinity School. Mission:    a serving people. Opportunities for service within the church include a range of committees and boards which call forth individuals' gifts. Many members serve needs in our city and beyond, an essential expression of Christian commitment that our church encourages. We consider our mission to be one of treating the physical as well as spiritual needs of people. Several mission groups address specific needs such as peace and reconciliation. Our church provided leadership in the formation of local missions including Contact Teleministry, Habitat for Humanity, Host Homes, Meals on Wheels, and One World Market, and continues to support them. Stewardship of our building includes providing room for a variety of service organizations and a day care center. The church budget includes annual gifts to denominational missions. Fellowship:    an active group of friends. Fellowship opportunities at our church range from the Boy Scout troop we sponsor to Women's Missionary Society to a varied Senior Adult ministry combining service, recreation and trips. Regular Wednesday night suppers, the annual fall picnic and the spring all-ages beach retreat are events that bring members together for community building and celebration. A group of women meets every Monday to sew and create crafts which are sold at the annual church bazaar in November. Our Christmas observance includes sharing with the community two Love Feasts, one on Christmas Eve, which many members consider the high point of the year. Belonging:    a member of the Great Church. While a Baptist congregation in the classic free-church tradition, we recognize that we are but one small expression of the Body of Christ. We hold ties with the American Baptist Churches in the USA and are in friendly cooperation with the Alliance of Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. We have a fraternal relationship with the Church of the Brethren, one of the historic peace churches. We participate in the ecumenical ministry of Durham Congregations in Action and the North Carolina Council of Churches of Christ. Membership:    a diverse congregation. We are people bound together by our confession of faith in Jesus as Lord, to the glory of God. We have in our membership persons from many denominational backgrounds. Baptism of believers by immersion is the only mode we practice; however, we affirm the baptism of other groups of Christians. We do not make immersion a membership requirement for those who have been baptized in other communions. We ask only that these people share our confession of faith and find their baptism meaningful, regardless of when it occurred and the mode by which it was administered. We Invite You:    To consider membership in the Watts Street Baptist Church. We welcome seekers, strugglers, doubters, and all others who desire to be a part of God's covenant people in this place.

Covenant Promises

WSBC Covenant Having been called by God and led by the Holy Spirit to confess Jesus Christ as Lord, and having been baptized into the church gathered into this place and throughout the world, we enter into covenant with God and with one another. We promise: To worship together, witnessing to God’s redemptive and sustaining grace; To seek to grow in the knowledge of God revealed in Jesus and in our own personal experience; To study the Bible and to pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit in applying its teachings to our lives; To instruct others in the Christian faith and in our Baptist heritage; To teach the children among us by word and example that in obedience to God they will find life’s highest purpose and richest meanings; To love one another, being slow to judge and quick to forgive; To celebrate different views and gifts among us, confident that we are one body in Christ; To minister to one another with compassion, sharing both joys and sorrows; To contribute time, money, and abilities to the church’s ministry; To proclaim the gospel to those who do not know Jesus as savior; To embody God’s forgiveness in all our relationships, both at home and at work; To promote peace and justice wherever we touch other lives; To support the mission of the church by feeding, housing, and befriending the needy; To seek the kingdom of God on earth, knowing that nothing can separate us from God’s love. We enter this covenant freely, promising to abide by its claims on our lives and to renew it regularly with one another before God.