Business Meetings

We have a large, all church business meeting once a year. Its usually in January. Then in June we have a special meeting for reports from our few committees.

Works very well for us.

 

Every other month. Used to have it monthly but decided we could get everything taken care of meeting bi-monthly.

 

Quarterly. I think.

 

We do it quarterly, although we provide monthly financial statements that are available to anyone. Most of the work previously done in church wide business meetings is now done by teams (committees) on a as needed basis.

 

businessmeeting is monthly at our church.
I've wondered in curches with yearly business meetings, what happens when soemthing comes up that needs church approval, do you have a specail called business meeting or what?

 

You have moved to quarterly business meetings, but we will call a meeting if something comes up that needs a congregational vote.

 

Bolded mine

We are in the process of changing to this system, and I'm anxious for it to happen.

There is one in my church who seems to love the sound of his own voice, and has an opinion/comment/objection concerning far too many things that transpire in the now monthly business meeting.

 

We meet monthly on the "second wednesday after the first Sunday" as stipulated in the by-laws. What was funny to me was that the by-laws of my previous church read that monthly business meeting would be held, "on the first Wednesday after the second Sunday." I actually had an argument over this with my wife as to whether it was the same day or not!:laugh: I won't say which side of the argument I was on!

 

Monthly business meetings are the stuff of a smaller church. However, most "experts" will tell you that in order for a church to move past the small church mentality that monthly business meetings need to go. It allows for too many opinions, too many objections, too much talk, and a lot less action. Ministry teams, staff, etc. handle decisions within prescribed boundaries. Business meetings at the most happen quarterly and most often once a year.

 

To build a bit on what I mentioned before: We are a elder led church model that believes our few committees and pastoral staff are able to make most decisions affecting the effective operations of our church.

We elect our trustees and committees in our annual business meeting and give them the commission to maintain God's vision and standards for our church.

Since we run a fairly large number of people on the weekend, it simply isn't plausible for us to have monthly business meetings. We do our best to keep our vision simple, focused, and in front of the people. Major decisions (large capital expenses, pastoral staff additions, our quarterly budget affirmation, etc) are handled by a brief special session after each service and a vote of those assembled. We try to leave the day-to-day operations with those we have empowered to lead our church in those areas.

We are very transparent and any member (we utilize a covenant membership process) who desires to see the budget, personnel status, and has a legitimate question about our church can ask at any time and it will be provided to them.

I grew up in a smaller church at had monthly business meetings. It was a great way to run that church. My parents went to most all of them and I grew in my understanding of leadership and what the church meant. They are good things.

Our conviction for our church is to conduct our operations differently as it suits our needs. We have a vibrant fellowship and are seeing many people connect with Christ and others through the ministries of our church. It is really exciting to be part of a great fellowship like this.

 

As a church gets larger, the structure of how you do business meetings have to change. At Highland Park baptist Church in Chattanooga, I sat thru a yearly business meeting that took all of 10 minutes at most. Dr. Roberson would tell us the budget for the next year and the congregation would vote. I am not certain that a church of that size could act any differently.

I think a contributing factor to the number of business meetings is the level of trust in the pastor, finance committee and staff. When I got here, we had monthly business mtgs. But over the years because we have always shown ourselves to be trustworthy and open in all the dealings, the need has slipped past a monthly meeting to a quarterly meeting and sometimes that only lasts 15 or so minutes.

I always tell our church that the business of the church does NOT take place on a wednesday night meeting. The real business of the church takes place on Sundays and throughout the week as the church (people) serve God in their communities.

 

Our quarterly meeting is tonight.. I hate those things!