Business Meetings

[FR7 Baptist]

How often does your church have business meetings? Mine has them on the last Wednesday of every month, as required by the bylaws.

 

[preachinjesus]

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.

 

[Tom Butler]

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

 

[Marcia]

Quarterly. I think.

 

[Tom Bryant]

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.

 

[annsni]

Well, in our church we have:

Weekly:
Pastors' meeting
Staff meeting
Worship meeting
Events planning meeting

Monthly:
Deacons' Meeting

When needed:
Ministry meetings (for the individual ministries)

Yearly:
Annual meeting
Budget meeting
Budget vote

 

[donnA]

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?

 

[Salty]

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?

I have always been in small churches, but I would suppose in the mega churches that there is an executive board (ie board of directors) that manages day to day business, and the annual business meeting is nothing more than a formality.

 

[annsni]

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?

Well, we're more pastor run than board run although we have a board of pastors with 10 of them!! LOL

Most of the time, the pastors and/or staff with the input of the pastors makes decisions. There's not much that they can not handle on their own. The congregation votes on deacons and the budget and that's about it.

What sort of things are you thinking of that would need a business meeting?

 

[Trotter]

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

 

[just-want-peace]

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.

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.

 

[GBC Pastor]

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!

 

[sag38]

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.

 

[annsni]

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.

I can totally see this. In our old church, there would be arguments over what toilet paper to use (totally NOT kidding) and in my ILs church, they almost had a church split on the drapes. Incidental things like that are just decided. Period. When we did the new addition to the church, there were 3 staff members who decided everything on decorating, although our senior pastor DID ask me my opinion on the cabinet hardware. But seriously - does this need to be a committee decision? I love that things at our church are decided by those who need to decide on it. Yes, they listen to the opinions of others and nothing is done "in secret" since we have a staff of 45, but to get the whole congregation in on what Sunday School curriculum we're going to use would be SO not useful.

 

[preachinjesus]

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.

 

[Tom Bryant]

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.

 

[tinytim]

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

 

[annsni]

Our annual meeting lasts about 3 hours but 2 hours and 58 minutes of that is fun. We have the one and only pot luck dinner our church officiates, we have skits, worship, contests, etc. It's a blast. At one point before dessert, the budget is put to a vote and the only time we've ever had a "no" to it is when a child says so. LOL We DO have a budget inquiry meeting the week before and if anyone has any questions about the budget, they can ask then but for the last 10 years, the only attendees have been the staff who is required to be there and the chairman of the deacons. That meeting lasts 10 minutes and is mostly the business pastor explaining the new budget. So at the annual dinner/budget vote, it's basically "This is the budget. All those in favor. All those opposed. Our budget has passed. Now dessert is served." LOL Easy peasy!