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Return
to Christian Legal Chronicles THE
VITAL IMPORTANCE OF BYLAWS FOR CHRISTIAN CHURCHES AND RELIGIOUS
NONPROFITS Most California churches and Christian
religious organizations organize as
a “California
religious nonprofit corporation.” This process
requires, among many other
things, filing Articles of Incorporation with the California Secretary
of
State. Vital
Importance of Bylaws In my opinion, probably the most
important foundational legal
document for a church or religious nonprofit organization
are the bylaws.
The bylaws (also called a "constitution") detail specifically
how the
church or nonprofit will be governed. Christian church bylaws
contain an
integrated mixture of doctrine, Bible-based church government
provisions, and
California nonprofit
corporation law. Therefore, when an internal conflict
arises, or
if there is an attempt at a hostile takeover of the assembly,
or there arises a dispute about doctrine or the roles of the
church leaders or members, then prayerfully and carefully
prepared
bylaws supply guidance, statement of doctrine, standards, disciplinary
procedures, voting requirements, dispute resolution procedures, and
other needed provisions. Inadequate
Bylaws Many existing Christian churches have
no bylaws, outdated
bylaws, or bylaws that no longer accurately reflect
their beliefs,
church government structure, or present needs. Worse, many
churches have
boilerplate bylaws that never accurately reflected the actual
church governing structure, and,
further, are not even utilized and referred to!
Many of these
existing churches ought to amend or replace their bylaws and have an
attorney
prepare or, at least, review the bylaws for usefulness, integrity and
legal compliance.
Then, they need to abide by such bylaws and follow corporate
formalities
which will help shield them from liability and guard against certain
types of internal church conflicts.
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