Church business meetings

[Salty]

Does your church allow non-members to attend business meetings?
Expound as much as needed.

 

[HeirofSalvation]

attend...sure...they are not really ENCOURAGED to...vote....no.we usually do it after the service proper.
Then again, we put as few things as possible up for a vote!

 

[HeDied4U]

Attend, yes
Vote, no

 

[annsni]

Same here. Attend yes, vote no.

But then again, we have pretty much just two church business meetings a year. We had our budget meeting last night where the budget was presented to the congregation. Then we have our annual meeting next Sunday in the evening and we will then vote on the budget and some new by-laws. The rest of things are decided amongst the staff and/or deacons.

 

[Tom Bryant]

Yes, they can attend. They can even speak. But they can't vote.

But for us, we make our business meetings as fast and as rare as possible. That's because the real business of the church is teaching, reaching, preaching and worshipping. And although we ought to do financial and other decisions to the glory of God, it isn't the real business of the church.

 

[DiamondLady]

Yes, they can attend. They can even speak. But they can't vote.

.

Agreed....attend, yes
Speak, yes (we often invite someone to speak if it's an issue where we need advice (like when we repaired the church foundation we invited an engineer to speak to that issue)
Vote...absolutely no

 

[convicted1]

Attend? absolutely.

Vote? no

Now, if other ORBs are there, they are seated with us(by right hand of fellowship), and can even speak in ways of giving advice. But only us, Little Martha, can vote, make moves and seconds, objections, etc. at our business meeting.

 

[mont974x4]

attend..yes....it is even encouraged at times
speak...yes
vote....no

 

[SaggyWoman]

I think all of the churches I have attended, for the most part, allowed visitors to attend Business meetings. Kind of gives insight to a part of the church.

 

[Salty]

It seems as though no one has a problem with visitors attending (voting and speaking is another story)

So lets change direction a bit.

Suppose you visited a church that would
A) not allow visitors to attend meeting
and/or
B) not allow women to vote in business meetings

Would that be a deal breaker for you?


I actually did visit such a church.

 

[Tom Butler]

It seems as though no one has a problem with visitors attending (voting and speaking is another story)

So lets change direction a bit.

Suppose you visited a church that would
A) not allow visitors to attend meeting
and/or

B) not allow women to vote in business meetings
Would that be a deal breaker for you?
I actually did visit such a church.

I don't have a problem with limiting business meetings to members, although they are welcome at the church I serve.

But, not allowing women to vote would be a deal-breaker for me.

 

[Jon-Marc]

It's done after the morning service--after the non-members have left; they couldn't vote anyway.

 

[Bobby Hamilton]

Our business meetings at my church growin up were always done on sunday nights. It would be announced in the morning the week before and then the same day.

We typically didn't have a lot of guests coming on Sunday evenings. I don't recall it ever being a problem or anyone feeling uncomfortable. Typically the only time there was an issue was if someone objected, and I only recall that a time or two by members.