Would you take your family on a vacation road trip without having one or more of the following: Mapquest, road maps, Google Maps, GPS apps or tools such as Garmin, or some other helps to get you to your destination? Even a wise and experienced long-distance traveler needs help with guidance on long trips.
So do churches. There are certain guiding documents that a local church needs to have handy as they journey down the road of ministry. They not only need to be handy, they need to be updated and used frequently by leadership who are responsible for navigation.
Your question for the day is, does your church have current guiding documents? Check to see if your church has the following guiding documents.
Articles of Incorporation: Not every church has filed for non-profit incorporation status, but it should at least have a formal statement of organization, aka constitution. This document needs to spell out certain things such as corporate name and legal address; statement of purpose and non-profit status; name(s) and address of each leader or incorporator; membership qualifications, rights and responsibilities; and distribution of assets on dissolution.
Statement of Faith or Doctrine: This is the official and accepted doctrine for the church. Pastors and leaders should fully agree with the church's Statement of Faith and all teaching and preaching in and by the church should conform to this guiding document. Many churches also require members to agree to this statement of doctrine or at least acknowledge if and where they disagree with one or more of the points of biblical doctrine. The Statement of Faith provide the theological direction for the church.
By-laws: This document provides a description of how the church will structure itself for effective ministry. The by-laws usually include content sections or articles covering the following areas of church organization: church membership, church governance, leadership structures, pastor(s), meetings, and amendments. The by-laws need to be congruent with the articles of incorporation. The by-laws should be reviewed and audited on a regular basis with any changes or recommendations made and acted on. Amendments should be dated, and obsolete or underused articles should be deleted or changed accordingly. The ideal by-laws document will be five to ten pages in length.
Directional Statement: The Directional Statement is a very important guiding document that includes three key elements if the church's DNA and culture. The first is the all-important mission or purpose statement. This is the true North on the church's directional compass. It provides the reason for the church's existence as well as each individual ministry in the church. The second is the statement of core values for the church. These help lead the church toward effective ministry and accomplishing its ministry. The third statement found in this document is the vision for the church. It describes the God-given future of the church when led by the Holy Spirit to accomplish its mission while being guided by its actual core values. While the mission and core values of the church will remain mostly constant, the vision may change as its mission field and demographics change over time.
Policies and Procedures: As a young church matures, it develops guiding policies and standard operating procedures. These are often spelled out in a policy manual for church and ministry leadership. These policies and procedures need to be congruent with the above guiding documents.
The Church Budget: A budget for the church is in essence a statement of faith in God to provide the needs of the church to fulfill its mission and vision. Some may be tempted to view the budget as the top guiding document but it is simply a guide to help the church fulfill its mission during a short period of time.
Here are some guidelines for using the church's guiding documents.
Provide all the guiding documents every year to all new and existing church pastors and leaders. Make them available to all church members who request the information contained in them.
Each year, review and revise all church guiding documents using an assigned team that reports to the lead pastor and the governing leadership board or team.
Use the documents to frequently ask, "Are we moving forward in the right direction to get to our God-given destination?"
When is the last time you have read through the guiding documents of your church? If so, what did you learn?