We live in a litigation-happy society. Assuming your church is safe from lawsuits is a set-up for disaster. While many suits are unjustified factually or legally, way too many suits against churches are appropriate because of inadequate ministerial practices. The very good news is that the majority of such lawsuits are preventable.
One of the most important documents a church can have in its “legal arsenal” is a church ministry plan set forth in a clearly written, proactive set of bylaws.
When their bylaws are inadequate, churches face a higher risk of being dragged into extensive and expensive litigation, having their ministry greatly disrupted and being ordered to pay damages, or suffering a variety of serious consequences.
If your church's bylaws are not current and properly written, your church has opened itself up to some of the following serious consequences.
• Consequence #1: The risk of serious errors increases. Many churches don't perform some necessary functions simply because they don't know that the tasks are required or the risks of not doing them. Churches can get into significant trouble when they don't understand that they should pay overtime, have workers' compensation insurance for their employees, do background checks on certain workers, comply with copyright rules, avoid improper political activities, and implement numerous policies governing property, transportation, discipline and other matters. Churches have been sued or suffered government intervention because of their failure — albeit ignorantly and unwittingly — to comply with these legal duties.
Churches have legal duties they have to fulfill to manage their ministerial operations properly. A church can unwittingly delegate responsibilities it didn't even know it had. One church delegated the duty to respond to an employee's sexual harassment claim to an untrained group of leaders. Predictably, this group did a very poor job as they “handled” the matter.
One year later — after the church thought the situation was resolved — the church found itself in front of a jury. The employee told the jury how the church had failed to act on the sexual harassment claim and how the staff member, determined by the church committee to be innocent, had raped her. The jury decided that the church had failed its responsibilities and awarded the employee $2 million for her actual damages. Additionally, the jury ordered the church to pay an additional $4 million in exemplary damages as an example to warn other churches to handle their ministerial affairs better than this church had.
After the jury had awarded a $6 million judgment against his former church, this same staff member was hired by another church. What do you think a jury would do to that subsequent hiring church on the first rumor of misconduct?
Proper bylaws incorporate an understanding of such legal, business and government regulatory issues. Bylaws should define these critical functions and delegate accountable individuals. Church members who are trained and competent to serve on personnel committees, risk management teams, property and transportation committees, and other essential teams can dramatically reduce the risks that churches face.
• Consequence #2: Incredible ministry opportunities may be missed. Church bylaws are not just a document lawyers charge you to prepare that the church files away after they are adopted. Bylaws are a ministry operating plan that recognize what each church participant brings to the church and utilizes the spiritual gifts, talents and resources God has brought to the church.
Proper bylaws help churches achieve the excellence Christ deserves in his body's core ministerial operations. Most pastors need support and freedom to achieve the potential of their role as the spiritual leader of the church. This demands that pastors focus on their true calling and delegate many tasks they now perform.
Giving up those tasks is a blessing for the pastor and also for the members who step into valuable roles of service.
b>• Consequence #3: The church may waive important rights. Churches have important “potential but unactualized” rights by merely inserting them in their bylaws. A church's bylaws can authorize the church to refuse to hire employees or select leaders unless these people are Christians who personally agree to the church's doctrinal statement and agree to live in accordance with the bylaws' doctrinal statement.
Churches can require all church employees and members to agree to allow the church to complete disciplinary processes, effectively waiving potential claims for defamation or violations of privacy. Bylaws can require that most potential lawsuits be resolved through internal Christian mediation. If a member or leader is sued, the bylaws can require that the church protect them from individual liability and pay their legal fees.
If these rights aren't adopted by the church, protections the church could have are probably waived and unavailable when really needed.
• Consequence #4: The document may create obligations the church doesn't otherwise have. Courts can force a church to do whatever the church “says” it will do in its bylaws, even if the law would not otherwise have required the church to do what it agreed to do in its bylaws. Church bylaws easily can grant more “rights” to employees or impose more obligations on itself than it is legally required to. A poorly drafted indemnification policy can require a church to pay damages caused by an employee that the church might otherwise not have to pay.
It's better to limit the bylaws to more essential policies and include more detailed ministry plans in operating policies. Churches should include a disclaimer that the church intends to follow the policies, but that the policies don't create rights that are legally enforceable against the church.
• Consequence #5: Improperly written bylaws can “invite” judicial intervention. Bylaws explain a church's doctrinal beliefs, ministerial practices and church/member relationship issues to members and non-members. Bylaws set forth the process of resolving internal church issues as they arise. A review of the bylaws can quickly tell a judge whether a church knows what it is doing and can convince a judge that it's better not to get involved in an internal church dispute.
If bylaws are old and outdated or if multiple copies exist, a church may have trouble proving which of several versions are valid. The current copy of the bylaws must be signed and dated; and it must properly reflect the proper church name.
Make it a major goal by the end of 2007 to update your bylaws. Get started — now.
This article, courtesy of LifeWay Christian Resources' Facts & Trends magazine, was written by Steven Lewis, president of Church Excellence Inc., a ministry designed to help churches achieve excellence in their core ministerial practices. He and his wife, Kim, are the parents of three children and members of Henderson Hills Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla.