Church boards

How do you address church boards? Im just finding it confusing how they operate. When you want to do something in church are you meant to submit something to them for approval or what.

And are there church boards in the Bible? Are they deacons, or elders and whats the difference. Whats session and whats with the clergymen and laymen divide? Do you need to be ordained, or nominated, or voted in. Or are they like the 12 apostles. Or 24 elders. How long do you serve for? Are they women or men or both, are they in charge of the church like management or are they just there for prayer support, I dont really understand the purpose.

In the USA (I'm not sure where others are from) Churches are legal entities that must register with the state for tax purposes, and so the state can know who is legally authorized to marry people, etc.

Churches often select a 'board', rather than a single person to make decisions. I'm not entirely sure why, but I'm guessing it is to assure someone is still around to conduct church business if the main person is incapacitated. Another reason would be to spread the legal responsibilities on more than one person't shoulders. Another reason would be so one person doesn't hold ALL the power and decision-making ability.

Term length and gender rules would be set up in the by-laws (rules that govern the church itself) that were decided upon at the formation of that church.

Number of board members and process for becoming one would also be designated in the by-laws.

Not sure if that's helpful, but that's my take on it.

Love in Jesus,
Kelby

For an organisation to have a voice or a position it needs to maintain control of that voice.
The church board is the means to achieve this.

If a church was like many of the forums you see on the internet it would be very confusing.
A group could quickly be overrun by one group who target them for whatever reason.

Different churches establish different methods of achieving this. So some denominations will have a faith
declaration to which each congregation have to agree with to be part of the larger group.

Some are a total legal entity across many groups, and each group exists with permission of the large group.

Non denominational groups tend to have their own leadership and vision so will have individual expressions of this.
There is no one formula, as one can see, but the reasons for having a structure are the same, to maintain consistency.

I think most function similar to a city council meeting. Changes that might need pass before the board might be physical things like "Will we be putting up a new building in X city?" or hire/fire decisions and may also include doctrinal components like "will we allow/require/reject our preachers to preach OSAS? and of course tracking of income, and paying expenses. Sub-commitees and officers (i.e. a treasurer) may be set up or required.

How many people need to make up a board?

I would think when two or three or gathered in Jesus name that would be the minimum to agree to make decisions.

Are the by-laws imposed by govt, city council or are they just church by-laws.

How does anyone know all the rules anyway? It seems to be one only finds out the rules when one breaks them. Nobody really bothers to tells you this when you join a church.

And who makes the rules?

Say you go and join something, doesnt have to be a church, any organiszation, even a forum, and you get given a huge long list of rules to agree with even before you can even start posting. Then every time you accidentally violate one you get called up. So it is like a method of control?

Am not saying rules are bad...but sometimes you arent even aware of them. And theres always silly rules. And there are some people that enforce them in a weird way just cos they dont like you or want to be the rule police.

The rules for any denomination are the religion designed by man as a way to please God and, as such, flawed to a certain degree or even totally contrary to scripture as the way that we should conduct ourselves in developing and enriching our own personal spiritual relationship with the Lord

Who makes the rules? The guys in charge make the roles and usually women play no part in the decision making process or attain any level of authority or leadership.

I don't believe that it is spiritually correct to treat women as less than equal to men but perhaps I hold the minority view on this matter.

There are almost as many variants of "church boards" as there are churches. Most would likely claim they are following Scripture as they understand it. The problem is that Scripture doesn't say much about church governance.

The church I attend has eight board members for about 450 people attending on a Sunday. All are male, though the board is looking at allowing women on (let's not debate that issue in this thread). Each serves for a term. The board generally deals with managing the physical building and with overseeing but not controlling the various ministries. They handle the legal responsibilities for the church. We also have several staff who handle the day-to-day ministry activities such as preaching, music, and children/youth programs.

The local Baptist church I am a member of does not have a board or any other form of ruling body.
All decisions are made by a vote of the members with each member having an equal voice and vote.
We believe this is the example set in Scripture.
The church at Jerusalem choose the replacement for Judas.
The church at Antioch sent Paul.
The church at Corinth was to deal with the man who had taken his father's wife.
There is no Scriptural basis for any type of ruling class which automatically establishes a second class of members.

I was attending a baptist church and one of my friends got nominated to be an elder. She was serving for a year but she became very disillusioned cos she was the only female and she said the men just all agreed with each other and wouldnt even listen to her point of view. She said all they talked about was money and didnt even pray about matters. It was like a group of yes men for the pastor. She had to attend these meetings just to make up numbers. She said she felt her voice didnt count for anything. In the end she left because no matter what she said she was overriden. I am not debating this whether its right or wrong but just being honest here. She did feel she was wasting her time being on this board or commitee.

They also had general meetings that church members could attend but i think to be an actual member you had to only go to that church and pay tithes or something. Then you could vote on things.

I am wondering if this is the same for other types of churches across the board, it does seem that way. It doesnt seem biblical though. I know the apostles did draw lots about who could be a replacement apostle, eg Matthius, to make up numbers but Jesus had other ideas and personally chose Saul who became Paul..who wasnt even a disciple then. I am not sure about there being separate churches for jeruslem and antioch thought it was all one church.

I do know there were councils to discuss doctrine and make decisions over certain things amongst the apostles. But I dont really read about them talking about a physical building in scripture. Why cant the church board just be honest about what they really talk about and say they are property managers or housekeepers or something like that. It does seem to me that certain people might be on it because they have investments or are stakeholders?

I do find that certain people actually dont want to oversee things, they want to control things. I think thats when they step over the line and hamper ministries from moving forward and being effective.

Just coming back to this.

I have a question just how involved are church boards with the physical building and property management. Are they kind of like the sandrehin (made up of chief priests, scribes, pharisees, lawyers? Pominent high born leaders) in Jesus day who were kind of in charge of the temple building. For example they say who can enter and who cant, plus they sold merchandise and got people to pay temple taxes, and seemed to inhabit the upper rooms etc.

Now how much of the church building is really a hindrance to people wanting to worship and honor God? Because some churches keep wanting to expand and build bigger buildings, more carparks and have HUGE mortgages. Then the buildings deteriorate through lack of care and manitainence. How big does a church building need to be??? Could we have a place of worship thats not a building? Or just at peoples homes?

And what about the churchyards, didnt the old days people were actually buried in the church yards surrounding the church building awaiting resurrection? Why does this no longer happen?

Read Paul's Epistles.......he set the various Administrative functions for Congregations........

Can you point to some scripture Paul wrote many letters...thanks
By administriation do you mean this being the same as ministry or not? For many people today administration might mean someone sitting in the office answering phone calls, emails and counting money...? Like a secretary?

Church boards well the one im dealing with meet once a month. So they can only make decisions once a month. Bit hard if you want anything done that needs a quick decision like whether or not to hold an event, plant a tree, whatever.

I am just about ready to give up. Its worse bureuacracy than loval govt.

That's where the Carver model of board governance is a good choice. The board deals only with the senior leader, not with every little decision and activity. It allows for clear boundaries around the roles of each party. Our church has been using it for about 17 years and the feedback I've heard is all positive.

Hmm will look into it. But since am not on the church board its not like it will make any difference.

Carver, again. I suggest a couple of books on the subject...

John Carver and Miriam Mayhew Carver, Reinventing Your Board, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.
John Carver, Boards That Make a Difference, 2nd ed., San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.

No harm in reading and recommending.

Dino can you explain how it works with your church. Please.

Yes I will do my homework but I am asking you since you obviously have more knowledge and experience than I do about it.