To become a member you must meet all the requirements of this section and submit an application, including a church leader verification. As long as you continue to meet these requirements and fulfill all membership responsibilities, your membership will continue.
We believe the following membership requirements benefit all members by being Scriptural, and also by minimizing medical risks and costs, ensuring proper accountability, and encouraging good health practices. Samaritan Ministries retains the discretion to remove from membership any member whose behavior violates Biblical standards such that they may bring the ministry into disrepute.
A. Be a professing Christian living by Biblical principles. Every adult on the membership must affirm the following member Statement of Faith:
- I believe in the triune God of the Bible. He is one God Who is revealed in three distinct Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. GEN 1:26 | LUKE 1:35, 3:21-22 | 2 COR 13:14 | MATT 28:18-20
- I believe Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, and continues to be such even after His resurrection—fully God and fully man. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, was bodily resurrected on the third day, and now is seated in the heavens at the right hand of God the Father. ISA 7:14, 9:6 | MATT 1:22-23, 26:64 | MARK 16:19 | LUKE 24:38-40 | JOHN 1:1-2, 1:14, 1:29, 2:18-21, 5:18, 8:46 | ACTS 2:32-33 | 1 COR 15:3-4, 15:20-21 | 2 COR 5:21 | COL 1:15-20, 2:9 | HEB 1:1-4, 4:14-15, 7:26, 9:11-14, 10:10-12 | 1 PETER 2:22-24 | 1 JOHN 3:5
- I believe that all people have sinned and fallen short of God's glory and can be saved from eternal death only through faith in Jesus Christ, Whose atoning death and resurrection secures for us eternal life. JER 17:9 | JOHN 3:3, 14:6, 20:30-31 | ROM 3:9-11, 3:23, 5:12-21, 10:8-13 | EPH 2:8-9
B. As a community of Christians helping other Christians with their medical bills, every adult on a membership must attend a Biblical, Christian church regularly (at least three out of four weeks per month that your health or weather permits). If it is not possible for you to regularly attend a Biblical, Christian church, please submit a letter giving the details. HEB 10:25
Fellowships, churches, temples, wards, and denominations that fall outside of Biblical, Christian faith—such as the Church of Scientology, Unitarian, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—do not qualify for the church attendance requirement.
C. Believe you are to bear one another’s burdens. GAL 6:2 | PHIL 2:4
D. Agree to: not abuse any legal or prescribed substance, abstain totally from illegal drugs and recreational use of marijuana, and abstain from tobacco use (a rare celebratory cigar or pipe, e.g. when a baby is born, is allowed). ROM 13:1 | 1 COR 6:12
E. Limit consumption of alcohol to moderate amounts and never drink to drunkenness, or cause another brother or sister in Christ to stumble. EPH 5:18
F. Abstain from any sexual activity outside of traditional Biblical marriage as designed by God between one biological man and one biological woman, which precludes rejecting one’s biological sex in any manner. GEN 1:27, 2:24 | MATT 19:5 | 1 COR 6:18
G. Agree to practice good health measures in accordance with the principle that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 COR 6:19-20
H. Keep your membership active by promptly sending your monthly assigned share to all regular needs assigned to you in your monthly newsletter mailing or eShare notification. A notice will be given to members who are late in sending shares, and they will lose eligibility to have their own needs shared until the issue has been corrected. If financial need is the cause of these problems, assistance may be available through the Sponsorship Program (Section V.C). LUKE 16:10
I. Agree that when you have a dispute with a fellow Christian, and your fellow Christian is willing to submit that dispute to fellow believers for resolution, you are not to sue each other in the civil courts or other government agencies, (Section XII). A person initiating a legal proceeding against SMI to become a member would disqualify himself from membership. 1 COR 6:1-8
J. Sign and send in your Membership Continuation Form each year, confirming that you are still meeting the above requirements. PROV 10:9
K. Have someone to whom you are accountable (pastor, elder, church official, small group leader, accountability partner, etc.) sign a statement confirming that you meet the above requirements. HEB 13:17
L. You will be required to agree to these requirements when you apply for membership and provide background information including your date of birth. Annually, you will need to reconfirm that you still meet these requirements.
If at any time you no longer meet all of these membership requirements, you must notify SMI immediately, and your membership and all privileges will be suspended unless otherwise indicated.
Your health status has no effect on your eligibility for membership. However, there are limitations on the sharing of needs for some conditions that existed before membership. Other needs in which members share have specific requirements. For a detailed explanation of the types of needs that are shared or not shared by the members, see the shareable needs Guidelines (Sections VI-IX).
To be eligible to have a need shared, a member must be meeting all of the requirements of membership including being current with all shares, and the need must not be caused by conduct inconsistent with membership requirements.