Transition from frequent business meetings to an annual business meeting

One of the major problems in many transitioning churches is the monthly business meeting. As part of the structure change, it is important to move the church away from the need to vote on everything and to trust their leaders to make certain decisions. For those churches finding it difficult to implement an annual business meeting, one alternative is to transition to quarterly business meetings with the idea that you will later move to the annual business meeting.

It is imperative that the pastor provide leadership to those business meetings to ensure that the church's transition is not derailed during a business meeting. Those members who are most disgruntled will often use Robert's Rules of Order to try to manipulate the business meeting to their advantage. The pastor must emphasize that Scriptures - not Robert's Rules of Order - will dictate how the church conducts itself in all matters, including its business.

Some church members, especially those who have been involved in the power structure of the church, will have a difficult time with this part of the transition. For that reason, you must empower as many people in the church as possible to make decisions that affect their ministries without subjecting them or their ministries to a vote by the church. You must release your church members to start new ministries as they desire.