Church Admin & Finance

I am interested in sample forms to include in our church's constitution that outline our stand and refusal to perform same sex marriages. I have searched several resources and have not been able to find any such sample form. Is it neccesary to involve a lawyer to draw this up to have it included in our constitution? Can anyone help me with this? Henk

How do you organize your volunteers? Does anyone know of good online volunteer management software available to churches? Preferably free or low cost and allows volunteers to assign themselves and others to task in the case of a switch.

Are other Canadian CRC congregations and maybe also Canadian churches of other denominations facing the same issues as our congregation with regard to getting licence/permission to show DVDs or videos in church? Most DVDs or videos that we purchase at stores are sold for viewing by an “at home” audience of a few people. If you were to purchase the same item for viewing by large audiences, it would probably cost ten times as much because of the royalty paid to the copyright owner. It is possible for organizations or groups to make arrangements with the copyright owners for a royalty to be paid...

Does anyone have a "lock down" procedure in place for their church to use in case of a threat of violence? We do not have an intercom system but we do have a Bell/Buzzer that is audible throughout the building and located inside the office we plan to use as both a warning signal and an all clear signal depending on the number and length of rings. During our weekday programs there is always someone in the office who could signal the lock down, but what do you do on Sunday morning when all the adults are in the sanctuary?

We're in the process of setting up evaluations of our staff in the New Year. I'm looking for resources that would help us with effectively evaluating our Pastor, Youth Director, Secretary and Custodian. I've reviewed a resource I received a few months ago ("Evaluation Essentials for Congregational Leaders"), but I found it simply expressed the importance of the evaluation, but gave no concrete approach or steps to performing one. Where can I find this?

Have you at all become frustrated with the traditional model of church governance and are wondering if there is a better way within our polity to make a Consistory and Council more effective? With many churches going to a staff driven model, others hanging on to the past model of elder driven care and decision-making and plenty of combinations in between it is becoming harder and harder to decide what is most effective. We are in the midst of thinking about what will work best for our church - a church of about 1000 and healthy in many ways but desirous of releasing people into ministry and...

I know there's a calendar on the CRC website for all the offerings ( http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=crcna.org_dklgus71pu6qkgltfut41j4j74%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles ) but even so it seems like every week our church gets a letter about an upcoming special Sunday with bulletin covers or other worship helps, and a request for an offering. They're all great causes and I've shared the calendar with our deacons but it still seems like we can't keep up. When I get a letter I look at our offering schedule (our deacons set it up at the beginning of the church year...

Maybe this needs to go under a different forum (moderators, feel free to move if necessary), but thought I would start here... Our members are asking questions again this time of year on what is deductible and what is not. I am not a tax pro by any means, just trying to do what is legal/right for everyone. I have read through many of the resources concerning this, but getting mixed signals. Any advice on the following is appreciated : - if a person donates an item, for example a flat screen monitor to the church youth room or miscellaneous supplies to the nursery, what responsibility does the...

All - After months of looking for some examples, I ended up writing my own. Please take a look and hopefully this will be of help for you. I'd love to get some additional perspective so please send me your comments! http://docs.google.com/View?id=dh2g7s9_0cvwps9f2

I haven't found a clear articulation of the following on the CRCNA or Network website. When Synod approves the Ministry Share assessment in June 2011, is the assessment and/or related budget for 2012 based on the active professing members over 18 count as of August 31, 2010 - or August 31, 2011? Timeline: August 31 2010: Submission of Yearbook counts by local congregations January 1, 2011: Ministry Shares approved at Synod 2010 implemented September 2010 - May 2011: CRCNA Ministry agencies sets budgets and BOT arrives at a proposed Ministry Share assessment per active professing member over...