Church Constitution/Bylaws?

I am in my 3rd Pastorate. Been at this church for 5 years. My own mistake - I "assumed" the church had a constitution and bylaws, as it was organized in 1880. We are now (apparently again) harvesting the "fruit" of the lack of such documents. I only found out officially that there was no formal constitution or bylaws when some of our newer members (who are very business-oriented) asked.

Long-and-short, the church has operated under standing motions and a notebook of job and committee descriptions. The notebook was only introduced a year before I was called here due to some "issues"...

I am very much convicted that we MUST have bylaws- not only for more structure and ecclesiological function, but for some legal standing in this world that likes to find every weakness and opportunity to destroy. Add in that we have the stereotypical hyper-inflated (can you say fraudulent) church membership roll... and I now know a sketchy history of allowing folks who haven't been connected to the church in many years, come in to vote for things (hasn't yet happened in my tenure). It is time to get a handle on things or die trying!

So first - I covet your prayers.

But second, I am looking for some model church bylaws (and/or constitutions) to help a group I'm pulling together to write some bylaw proposals. I have been through the process before, but in a much different context - and looking back, I'm not real happy with the product of that effort.

If you have any words of wisdom, or prayerfully - some solid examples - especially that do a good job of handling membership (voting vs. non-voting?), I would be thankful for a lifetime!

 

We are not SBC, but I have reached out to other churches in our association. Thanks.