Church Business Meetings

[thx4mercy]

When a church has a business meeting and a vote is taken on a certain issue, can members request another meeting and vote again?  Would it be totally up to the pastor?

[Gregory Matthews]

I moved this thread to Town Hall on the assumption that some will want to respond by quoting from the Church  Manual and in the original section quotations are not allowed.

[Gregory Matthews]

To respond to the question:

The Church Manual states that Business Meetings are general called either by the pastor or by the Church Board.  It goes on to state that they are generally held monthly, quarterly or on some other established schedule as determined by the church.

It should be noted that the rules as to how the meeting is conduced are not laid out in the Church Manuel.  Rather, they are established by the congregation itself.

In some cases, any proposal considered for a vote must clear either the pastor or the Church Board.  At least that is how the congregation operates, not that the Church Manual requires it.  In other cases, any proposal can be considered for a vote that is brought up in meeting.  So, it depends on how a congregation operates.

Now to your question:  Yes, a vote on a proposal can be voted again at a later time and reversed and/or modified.  However, it should be kept in mind that from a practical standpoint, some issues can  not be reversed/changed.  From a practical standpoint, if the congregation votes to purchase item X, that can not be reversed after item X has been purchased.

It is not uncommon for a congregation to vote to engage in Y and then reverse that vote at a later time before Y has been fully put in practice.

 

[thx4mercy]

1 hour ago, The Wanderer said:

I would be interested to hear if you can give a specific example/experience that has prompted this question? 

I will put specifics in a PM.

[Gregory Matthews]

By policy, any member of the congregation can attend and vote.  Of course if there was a disruptive member who could be expected to require police assistance in behaving, steps might be taken to keep that person from attending.

In actual fact, many congregations will allow non-members to attend, but not to vote.  From my perspective, that is quite common.

I recently attended a business meeting that had non-members present, but not voting.

I am dumbfounded by any thought that a "regular" member would not be allowed to attend.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

... people need to remember that there are church *board* meetings, and church *business* meetings.... they're not the same.  I can't imagine what would be in a church business meeting that would be addressing the behavior of members..

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

3 minutes ago, The Wanderer said:

sometimes, in said "business meetings" if a member is otherwise under some sort of censure, and that member is getting funding for a ministry from the church, then yes, it would also be taken up at a business meeting. I have personally seen this happen. But, yes, there is a difference between the two.

why would a censored member be receiving money??  That's weird.

[Gregory Matthews]

The Wanderer:  I am confused by a response that you made.  Are you talking about Board Meetings or are you talking about Business Meetings?

The question that was asked concerned Business Meetings.  Business Meetings was the focus of my response.

However, to respond to Board Meetings:  For people to attend who are not members of the Church Board, is up to the Church Board.  I am aquainted with some congregations that would allow such to attend, but, would ask non-members to leave when some subjects were brought up.

 

[Gregory Matthews]

Up until my comment earlier this morning, my comments were only about Business meetings as that was what I understood the question to be about.  Your comment about 12 hours ago caused me to think that I might be confused.

 

[thx4mercy]

17 hours ago, Gregory Matthews said:

Yes, a vote on a proposal can be voted again at a later time and reversed and/or modified. 

So if some members got together and went to the pastor and said, "We think the congregation should be allowed to vote on this issue again."  Would it then be totally up to the pastor as to whether he would allow another business meeting on the matter?  Would it depend on what they gave for their reason?

If the pastor is 100% all for how the vote went, I just can't see him allowing another meeting when people who request it are "on the other side."  Since the church manual doesn't address this situation, it seems that the pastor can make his own rules.

[Gregory Matthews]

X4Mercy:

*  There may be a few autocratic pastors who  would  work as you have presented it.  But, in the U.S., I will suggest they would be few.

*  Rather, I would suggest that it would likely be the Church Board that would decide.  In any case, it would probably be at a regularly scheduled 
Business meeting,  and it would not be at a specially called Business Meeting.

*   In addition, in many congregations, a proposal can be made during the Business Meeting  without any prior approval.  In such cases, no one would control that agenda and a re-vote could clearly be taken.