Church Governance Fun!

Dear LTCC Family,

Have you spent time reviewing the draft bylaws published for review?  We have received good feedback already but would like to hear more, and our desire is for us all to be prepared to discuss them at our April 14th meeting.

Why are we spending so much time on our bylaws?  I have asked myself this question over the last couple of months.  More specifically I have asked, “is it wrong for a church to emphasize “laws” as much as we have been?”  The short answer is no.  But let me share my thoughts.

Legal

In a legal sense, we are required to have bylaws by the State of Washington and Paul instructs us in Romans 13 to submit to our governing leaders God has put in place.  

Church Governance

In a church governance sense, bylaws are designed to give us instruction on how we expect our leaders to govern, what’s expected of church membership, and how we make important decisions; to name a few aspects.

The Church

In a call to the Church sense, bylaws help us keep the main thing the main thing.  The Gospel is our “main thing” at LTCC and our mission is to love God by helping people follow Jesus.  Well defined church bylaws (and constitution) help us quickly work through church matters and operate on the same page week-in and week-out; enabling us to spend most of our energy on the mission God has put before us.

Church Family

From a church family sense, we have been through a lot together over the past couple of years.  Many of our conversations have focused on sadness over resigning elders, needing more elders, how we affirm our leaders, how to handle disagreements and church discipline, and aspects of church governance models.  These topics are addressed in our updated bylaws.  

While these topics are addressed, the Transition Team’s goal was to avoid overprescribing solutions hoping to prevent every potential issue that might come up.  Someone recently reminded me that for what man intends for evil, God intends for good (Gen. 50:20).  It is not possible to protect ourselves from the will of God.  

So, I encourage you to dig in and review what the Transition Team, Elders, and Church Council have published for review.  You can find them here: bylaws and constitution.  The Transition Team has prepared the attached commentary to support our thinking on some of the meatier topics.  This should help guide our conversation in our meeting on the 14th. 

Perry for the Elders and Deacons


Quarterly Financial Update
Total Offerings: $109,520.56
Total Expenditures: $121,392.83

All numbers are through 03/31/24