Our Constitution

 GBC Constitution

Table of Contents:

THE PREAMBLE

Hav­ing placed our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for our sal­va­tion, and hav­ing believed in the teach­ing of the Holy Bible and in the ple­nary and ver­bal inspi­ra­tion of the same, we the mem­bers of Grace Bible Church adopt for gov­ern­ment the fol­low­ing arti­cles this day of Sun­day, May 22, 1995.

ARTICLE I NAME

The name of this orga­ni­za­tion shall be Grace Bible Church of Port Char­lotte, Flori­da, Inc., a per­pet­u­al, non-prof­it cor­po­ra­tion under the laws of the state of Florida.

ARTICLE II PURPOSE

A. Mission Statement

Grace Bible Church, as a local orga­ni­za­tion of believ­ers in the Lord Jesus Christ, has as its chief end the pro­mo­tion and cul­ti­va­tion of the per­son­al and cor­po­rate knowl­edge of God. This involves three faces. We have the upward face toward the Lord by being atten­tive to His words and His exam­ple that we might please Him in wor­ship and in prayer. We have an inward face to each oth­er in help­ing one anoth­er grow in the knowl­edge of God by pray­ing, teach­ing, wel­com­ing, shar­ing, serv­ing, lis­ten­ing, admon­ish­ing, encour­ag­ing and help­ing. We have an out­ward face toward non-Chris­tians in reach­ing out to them in hos­pi­tal­i­ty, evan­ge­lism and tan­gi­ble help.

B. In order to fulfill its mission it is anticipated that Grace Bible Church will:

1. Own and hold real and per­son­al prop­er­ty nec­es­sary and prop­er to achieve the stat­ed pur­pos­es; will coöper­ate and work with orga­ni­za­tions or indi­vid­u­als hav­ing the same or sim­i­lar pur­pos­es as this cor­po­ra­tion; and will accept and receive any gifts, devis­es, bequests, or grants of what­ev­er nature for the uses and pur­pos­es of this cor­po­ra­tion in car­ry­ing out any of its objects and purposes.

2. Make and per­form con­tracts of every kind and descrip­tion and do any law­ful act or busi­ness in con­nec­tion with the objec­tives of this cor­po­ra­tion which may be nec­es­sary and desir­able to ful­fill­ing its purposes.

3. Estab­lish and oper­ate an inde­pen­dent, non-denom­i­na­tion­al Chris­t­ian school sys­tem, which shall engage in edu­ca­tion­al, reli­gious and char­i­ta­ble activ­i­ties. These may include grade schools, junior high schools, high schools, kinder­gartens, pre-schools and oth­er insti­tu­tions in which the stu­dents will be offered instruc­tion and oth­er edu­ca­tion­al advan­tages in an atmos­phere which will lead to liv­ing Chris­t­ian lives and to build­ing of Chris­t­ian char­ac­ter and Amer­i­can patriotism.

(Top)

ARTICLE III AFFILIATION

Grace Bible Church shall be an orga­ni­za­tion­al­ly inde­pen­dent enti­ty. It shall not unite with or come under the con­trol of any denom­i­na­tion­al group, but may unite with a fel­low­ship of oth­er inde­pen­dent church­es of like faith for the pur­pose of mutu­al encour­age­ment and the spon­sor­ing of var­i­ous activ­i­ties. Grace Bible Church shall not unite with or coöper­ate with orga­ni­za­tions or indi­vid­u­als not of like faith, for fel­low­ship or par­tic­i­pa­tion in spir­i­tu­al mat­ters as deter­mined by the Board of Elders.

ARTICLE IV DOCTRINAL STATEMENT

A. The Scriptures

We believe the six­ty-six books of the Bible to be the infal­li­ble, writ­ten Word of God, ver­bal­ly inspired by the Holy Spir­it, inerrant in the orig­i­nal man­u­scripts, and the only and final author­i­ty in all mat­ters of faith and conduct.

B. The Godhead

We believe in One God, cre­ator and sus­tain­er of the uni­verse, who is eter­nal­ly exis­tent in three persons–Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

C. The Person and Work of Christ

1. Birth

We believe that Jesus Christ is the eter­nal Son of God, that He was con­ceived by the Holy Spir­it and became incar­nate through the vir­gin birth, and that He unites for­ev­er in His per­son per­fect deity and true humanity.

2. Atonement

We believe that Jesus Christ lived a sin­less life, that He was cru­ci­fied as the sub­sti­tu­tion­ary sac­ri­fice for the sins of all men, that He rose bod­i­ly from the dead, that He ascend­ed into heav­en where He is now exalt­ed at the right hand of the Father, and where He inter­cedes for the believer.

D. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spir­it is Him­self God; that He glo­ri­fies the Lord Jesus Christ; that He was sent to con­vict the world of sin, right­eous­ness and judg­ment; that He regen­er­ates and indwells the believ­er; that He seals the believ­er unto the day of redemp­tion; and that He imparts gifts to each believ­er as He wills for the edi­fi­ca­tion of the church.

E. Total Depravity of Man

We believe that man was cre­at­ed in the image and like­ness of God, but that as a result of Adam’s sin the race fell, inher­it­ing a sin­ful nature and becom­ing alien­at­ed from God; and that man is total­ly depraved and of him­self total­ly unable to rem­e­dy his lost condition.

F. Salvation

We believe that all who by grace through faith receive Jesus Christ are born again of the Holy Spir­it, and are there­fore chil­dren of God and eter­nal­ly saved, and that the Holy Spir­it indwells every believ­er to enlight­en, guide and enable him in life and service.

G. The Return of Christ

We believe in the “Blessed Hope,” the pre-tribu­la­tion rap­ture of the church, the per­son­al and pre-mil­len­ni­um sec­ond com­ing of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth with all His saints.

H. The Eternal State

We believe in the bod­i­ly res­ur­rec­tion of believ­ers and unbe­liev­ers, the saved being raised unto eter­nal life and the unbe­liev­ers unto ever­last­ing punishment.

I. The Church

We believe that the church, which is the body of Christ, is a spir­i­tu­al organ­ism made up of all born again per­sons of this age and that the estab­lish­ment and con­tin­u­ance of local church­es is clear­ly taught in the New Testament.

J. Baptism and The Lord’s Supper

We believe in water bap­tism by immer­sion for believ­ers. We also believe that God has giv­en two ordi­nances to the church, Bap­tism and the Lord’s Supper.

K. Gifts of the Spirit

We believe that God gives spir­i­tu­al gifts to all believ­ers for the build­ing up of the body of Christ; how­ev­er, we believe that some gifts of the Holy Spir­it such as tongues and heal­ings evi­dent­ly were lim­it­ed to the ear­ly church. We believe that God answers the prayers of His peo­ple and meets their needs accord­ing to his purpose.

L. Satan

We believe that Satan is an angel­ic per­son­al­i­ty who fell and became the arch­en­e­my of God and man; that Jesus Christ in His death and res­ur­rec­tion defeat­ed Satan; and that he final­ly will be cast into the lake of fire.

M. Unscriptural Associations

We believe that Scrip­ture pro­hibits the join­ing togeth­er in spir­i­tu­al mat­ters of believ­ers with unbe­liev­ers or with­out those not adher­ing to scrip­tur­al doc­trine or practice.

(Top)

ARTICLE V CHURCH MEMBERSHIP

Though the New Tes­ta­ment does not speak of church mem­ber­ship as such, there is indi­ca­tion that some means were used to define the con­stituen­cy of the church for pur­pos­es of care, min­istry and dis­ci­pline. These same pur­pos­es dic­tate the need for a rec­og­nized mem­ber­ship at Grace Bible Church. In essence, the local church is com­posed of the membership.

A. Types of Church Membership

1. Full Mem­ber­ship: Those who are accept­ed as full mem­bers enjoy the full priv­i­leges and respon­si­bil­i­ties of mem­ber­ship. Mem­bers in this cat­e­go­ry may not hold full mem­ber­ship in anoth­er church. Mem­bers under the age of 18 years old shall not pos­sess vot­ing priv­i­leges until their 18th birthday.

2. Asso­ciate Mem­ber­ship: Asso­ciate mem­bers are believ­ers who for sundry rea­sons are tem­porar­i­ly liv­ing in our area, have full mem­ber­ship in anoth­er church, and desire to unite with our fel­low­ship for the time of their stay. Those who are accept­ed in this cat­e­go­ry enjoy the full priv­i­leges and respon­si­bil­i­ties of mem­ber­ship except that of vot­ing and hold­ing office. Mem­bers in this cat­e­go­ry must hold full mem­ber­ship in anoth­er church of like faith. Asso­ciate mem­ber­ship will auto­mat­i­cal­ly be ter­mi­nat­ed when the per­son per­ma­nent­ly moves away from the area.

3. Mis­sion­ar­ies and Full Time Chris­t­ian Work­ers: Mem­bers who have been sent forth into full time Chris­t­ian ser­vice in anoth­er place may retain their full mem­ber­ship in Grace Bible Church. These mem­bers may also hold mem­ber­ship in church­es that they attend in their local area.

(Top)

B. Qualifications for Church Membership

The appli­cant must …

1. be born again.

2. have a life style com­men­su­rate with bib­li­cal stan­dards as delin­eat­ed in
para­graph D.

3. be in agree­ment with the doc­tri­nal state­ment of the church.

4. have been baptized
sub­se­quent to the time of his salvation.

(Top)

C. Admission Procedures for Church Membership

Any­one desir­ing mem­ber­ship in Grace Bible Church shall …

1. Sub­mit to the Board of Mem­bers an offi­cial mem­ber­ship application.

2. Sat­is­fac­to­ri­ly com­plete a new mem­bers orientation.

3. Appear before the Board of Elders for exam­i­na­tion and approval. Upon approval by the Board, mem­ber­ship can­di­dates become offi­cial mem­bers of Grace Bible Church.

The new mem­ber will be pre­sent­ed to the con­gre­ga­tion dur­ing the Sun­day morn­ing ser­vice fol­low­ing his accep­tance by the Board of Elders.

(Top)

D. Privileges and Responsibilities of Members

As a mem­ber of Grace Bible Church a mem­ber has the priv­i­lege of being a recip­i­ent of all the min­istries of the church. Only mem­bers are per­mit­ted to serve in offi­cial posi­tions such as Sun­day school teach­ers, youth work­ers, offi­cers in aux­il­iary orga­ni­za­tions, etc.

Respon­si­bil­i­ties include:

a) Holy living — Some of the implications are as follows:

  • a whole­some stan­dard in lit­er­a­ture and film.
  • Fol­low­ing bib­li­cal guide­lines regard­ing con­ver­sa­tion con­cern­ing others.
  • Observ­ing bib­li­cal teach­ings regard­ing oblig­a­tions in var­i­ous rela­tion­ships such as hus­band and wife, par­ent and child, employ­er and employ­ee, and gov­ern­ment and citizen.

b) Demonstrating the fruits of the Spirit. Some of the implications are as follows:

1. Seek­ing to be a bless­ing regard­less of atti­tudes or actions towards me.

2. Being con­sid­er­ate of weak­er broth­ers in practice.

3. Prac­tic­ing mod­er­a­tion in all things.

4. Abstain­ing from those things that are detri­men­tal to my phys­i­cal or spir­i­tu­al well being.

c) Ministry

New believ­ers should be active­ly involved in their own spir­i­tu­al devel­op­ment by spend­ing time in read­ing Scrip­ture and relat­ed mate­r­i­al, prayer, involve­ment in Bible stud­ies and dis­ci­ple­ship activ­i­ties which will assist in their growth. As the believ­er matures he has the respon­si­bil­i­ty to be active­ly and sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly involved in the min­istry to the church by means of the exer­cise of his spir­i­tu­al gifts. Every mature mem­ber should be involved in some reg­u­lar min­istry that is edi­fy­ing to the church.

(Top)

E. Termination of Church Membership

  1. By Let­ter of Ref­er­ence: A mem­ber desir­ing to trans­fer to anoth­er fel­low­ship shall request a let­ter of trans­fer. Ter­mi­na­tion of mem­ber­ship is effec­tive imme­di­ate­ly upon the receipt of such letter.
  2. By Let­ter of Res­ig­na­tion: A mem­ber may present a for­mal let­ter of res­ig­na­tion to the Board of Elders. Upon the receipt of such a let­ter by the Board of Elders mem­ber­ship is terminated.
  3. By Death: A mem­bers name shall be removed from the mem­ber­ship rolls upon his decease.
  4. By Dis­ci­pli­nary Action: Mem­bers are sub­ject to church dis­ci­pli­nary action when they cease to con­form, by pro­fes­sion or prac­tice, to the ele­ments of the church constitution.
  5. By Absen­teeism: At the dis­cre­tion of the Board of Elders a mem­ber may be dropped from the rolls if he fails to attend the reg­u­lar ser­vices of the church for a peri­od of three months

(Top)

ARTICLE VI CHURCH GOVERNMENT

A. The Board of Elders

1. Responsibilities of the Board of Elders

The church shall be gov­erned by an elect­ed body of elders. The Board of Elders shall be vest­ed with the over­sight and care of the spir­i­tu­al wel­fare of the mem­bers of this assem­bly. It shall also have the respon­si­bil­i­ty of main­tain­ing the facil­i­ties and con­duct­ing busi­ness on behalf of the church corporation.

2. Qualifications of the Board of Elders

A nom­i­nee for elder must have had two years of full mem­ber­ship in this local assem­bly pri­or to his nom­i­na­tion and must be qual­i­fied accord­ing to the con­di­tions set down in 1 Tim­o­thy 3 and Titus 1. Employ­ees of the church are not eli­gi­ble for a posi­tion on the Board of Elders with the excep­tion of the Pastor(s).

3. Election Procedures of the Board of Elders

  • Nom­i­na­tions shall be made by the Board of Elders.
  • One or two nom­i­nees shall be select­ed by the Board of Elders for each office to be filled if a suf­fi­cient num­ber of qual­i­fied men are avail­able. Each nom­i­nee must receive a sec­ond in order to be considered.
  • The elders will then dis­cuss the qual­i­fi­ca­tions of the nom­i­nees based on Titus 1, 1 Tim­o­thy 3 and the require­ments set forth by the church con­sti­tu­tion. At the con­clu­sion of this dis­cus­sion a unan­i­mous vote of approval by the elders will be required for con­tin­u­ance in the selec­tion process.
  • The elders shall then vote on the nominee(s). The elders’ choice to fill a vacant posi­tion will be deter­mined by a major­i­ty vote.
  • The name of the person(s) select­ed by the elders will be pre­sent­ed to the con­gre­ga­tion one week in advance of a con­gre­ga­tion­al vote for approval. “NO” votes cast by the con­gre­ga­tion when accom­pa­nied by a sig­na­ture, shall enti­tle the one who cast said vote the oppor­tu­ni­ty to offer to the Board, through the Chair­man of the Board, either in writ­ing or in per­son, detailed descrip­tions of his con­cerns and/or objections.
  • New­ly select­ed nominee(s) shall be installed the sec­ond Sun­day after the con­gre­ga­tion­al vote of approval.

4. The Term of Office of Elders

An elder will serve for three years and may suc­ceed him­self if select­ed by the Board of Elders and approved by the congregation.

5. The Configuration of the Board of Elders

The num­ber of elders pre­sid­ing on the elder board shall be in pro­por­tion to the cur­rent num­ber of vot­ing mem­bers on the mem­ber­ship roll. For a mem­ber­ship num­ber­ing up to 100, four elders shall be elect­ed and shall serve with the Pastor(s) on the board. Addi­tion­al incre­ments of 50 shall neces­si­tate the addi­tion of one elder to the board. The Board of Elders shall have a max­i­mum of eight (8) elect­ed elders.

6. Committees

The Board of Elders may con­duct its busi­ness through the use of com­mit­tees assigned to spe­cial projects for research and pre­sen­ta­tion of infor­ma­tion to the board. The chair­man of the board shall appoint mem­bers of the elder board when such a com­mit­tee is nec­es­sary and it shall be dis­solved by the chair­man when the need for the com­mit­tee ceas­es to exist.

7. Quorum

A quo­rum of the Board of Elders shall be declared for the pur­pose of vot­ing on issues on the floor for a vote when three/fourth’s of the elder board is present at an offi­cial­ly called meeting.

8. Meetings

The Board of Elders shall meet on a reg­u­lar­ly sched­uled basis but not less than once per month. Spe­cial meet­ings for any rea­son deemed nec­es­sary may be called for oth­er than the reg­u­lar­ly sched­uled month­ly meeting.
Agen­da items for each meet­ing shall be sub­mit­ted to the chair­man by the oth­er elders twen­ty four (24) hours pri­or to the meet­ing. Oppor­tu­ni­ty for added new busi­ness not on the orig­i­nal agen­da shall be enter­tained at the com­ple­tion of the dis­cus­sion of the orig­i­nal agen­da items with the con­sent of two-thirds of the mem­bers of the board.

9. Parliamentary Procedures

The board shall con­duct its meet­ings accord­ing to accept­ed par­lia­men­tary pro­ce­dures as enu­mer­at­ed in Robert’s Rules of Order.

(Top)

B. The Officers of the Board of Elders

1. Method of Selection

The offi­cers of the Board of Elders shall be select­ed from the mem­ber of the board in accor­dance with para­graph B.3.c in this article.

2. Term of Office

Each offi­cer shall serve a term com­men­su­rate to the bal­ance of his cur­rent term as a board member.

3. The Chairman:

a. Respon­si­bil­i­ties — The Chair­man of the Board of Elders shall call for order and pre­side over all offi­cial­ly called meet­ings of the church board. He shall be des­ig­nat­ed as pres­i­dent of the church cor­po­ra­tion and be empow­ered to car­ry out the func­tions of that office. He shall be empow­ered to appoint and dis­solve com­mit­tees, call for spe­cial meet­ings of the board, and com­pile the final agen­da for each offi­cial board meeting.

b. Qual­i­fi­ca­tions — The nom­i­nees for chair­man must have served at least one full term as a mem­ber of the Board of Elders pri­or to his elec­tion to the office of chair­man. The Pas­tor shall not be Chair­man of the Board.

c. Elec­tion Pro­ce­dures for the Chair­man of the Board — The Board of Elders shall nom­i­nate and elect its chair­man from its mem­ber­ship by pri­vate bal­lot. Selec­tion of the chair­man from the votes cast will be on the basis of the great­est num­ber of votes for one (1) board mem­ber. The Sec­re­tary of the Board will tal­ly the votes and noti­fy the indi­vid­ual of his elec­tion. The Pas­tor shall pre­side in the elec­tion of a new chairman.

d. Term of Office — The Chair­man of the Board shall serve as chair­man a term which is com­men­su­rate to the bal­ance to his cur­rent term as a board member.

e. Vot­ing Respon­si­bil­i­ties — The chair­man shall not be empow­ered to cast a vote on any issue except in the case of a tie vote. In this case his vote shall be the decid­ing vote on an issue. In addi­tion, he shall not be empow­ered to make a motion from the floor in an elder board meeting.

4. The Secretary:

a. Respon­si­bil­i­ties — The Sec­re­tary of the Board shall be respon­si­ble for tak­ing the min­utes of all board meet­ings, read­ing the min­utes of past meet­ings, plac­ing an offi­cial copy of the typed min­utes into the offi­cial record of board min­utes main­tained in the church office, pro­vid­ing a copy of the min­utes of the most recent meet­ing to each board mem­ber at least three (3) days pri­or to the con­ven­ing of the cur­rent meeting.

b. Elec­tion Pro­ce­dures for Sec­re­tary — The elec­tion pro­ce­dures for Sec­re­tary shall be the same as those for Chair­man of the Board.

5. The Treasurer:

a. Respon­si­bil­i­ties — The Trea­sur­er shall over­see the col­lec­tion and dis­per­sal of the funds of the cor­po­ra­tion and shall in addi­tion direct the gen­er­a­tion of a year­ly bud­get and all reports asso­ci­at­ed therewith.

b. Elec­tion Pro­ce­dures for Trea­sur­er — The elec­tion pro­ce­dures for Trea­sur­er shall be the same as those for the Chair­man of the Board.

(Top)

C. Procedures for the Termination of a Member of the Board of Elders

All mem­bers of the Board of Elders may ter­mi­nate their office through a writ­ten let­ter of res­ig­na­tion to the chair­man. The term of a board mem­ber may be ter­mi­nat­ed by the board if there is cer­tain knowl­edge of doc­tri­nal error or non-bib­li­cal prac­tice. When such charges are brought against any mem­ber of the board the fol­low­ing pro­ce­dure shall be followed.

  1. Bib­li­cal pro­ce­dures shall be observed through the Chair­man of the Board. If the charges are against the Chair­man of the Board this respon­si­bil­i­ty shall fall to the Pas­tor. Charges against an elder of the church shall be placed with the Pas­tor or with the Chair­man of the Board.
  2. If any mem­ber has charges offi­cial­ly placed against his name, he shall tem­porar­i­ly excuse him­self from the board while the charges are being discussed.
  3. If, after a prop­er exam­i­na­tion of all the facts it is deter­mined that the board mem­ber is inno­cent, he shall be reseat­ed to con­tin­ue his posi­tion. If the charges are proven to be cor­rect the elder shall be removed from office. A new elder, if avail­able, will be select­ed to serve the remain­der of the term of the dis­missed elder.
  4. Mem­bers removed from the elder board are sub­ject to the guide­lines for ter­mi­na­tion of church mem­ber­ship as found in Arti­cle 5.

(Top)

D. The Pastor

The church shall call to the office of Pas­tor a man who meets the qual­i­fi­ca­tions as set forth in 1 Tim­o­thy and Titus 1 and who is deemed qual­i­fied to meet the require­ments and needs of this local assem­bly as deter­mined by the mem­bers of this fellowship.

1. Responsibilities

The Pas­tor will be respon­si­ble for the admin­is­tra­tion of the church, for lead­er­ship in the evan­ge­lis­tic out­reach of the church and for the edi­fi­ca­tion of the mem­ber­ship through the min­istry of the Word. He will have gen­er­al over­sight of all church activ­i­ties and be respon­si­ble to see that all func­tion­ing enti­ties min­is­ter in accord with sound bib­li­cal prin­ci­ples and the intent of the constitution.

2. Qualifications

A can­di­date for the office of Pas­tor must be a man who meets the guide­lines as set forth in 1 Tim­o­thy, Titus 1, 1 Peter 5:1–4, etc.

3. Election Procedure

The Board of Elders shall serve as a com­mit­tee-as-a-whole in screen­ing can­di­dates for the office of Pas­tor. Upon the rec­om­men­da­tion of the board, a can­di­date shall be pre­sent­ed to the con­gre­ga­tion for accep­tance as Pas­tor. A vote for the call of a Pas­tor shall be by secret bal­lot and shall require a 75% vote.

4. Term of Office

The Pas­tor shall serve for an indef­i­nite peri­od of time as the church and Pas­tor feel led by the Holy Spirit.

5. Authority

The Pas­tor, by virtue of his office, shall main­tain the sta­tus of ex offi­cio mem­ber of all boards, com­mit­tees, depart­ments and group of this church.

6. Dismissal

Charges against the Pas­tor shall be brought to the Chair­man of the Board. The board shall inves­ti­gate each charge and rec­om­mend fur­ther action. A con­gre­ga­tion­al vote on the dis­missal of the Pas­tor shall be by secret bal­lot and for pas­sage shall require a 75% vote.

(Top)

E. Congregational Participation in Church Government

  1. Full mem­bers 18 years of age and over shall have the right to par­tic­i­pate in the gov­ern­ment of this church. Full mem­bers may par­tic­i­pate in dis­cus­sions of busi­ness and relat­ed sub­jects that appear on the annu­al meet­ing agen­da as set by the Board of Elders.

2. Issues for Con­gre­ga­tion­al Vote

Issues requir­ing the vote of the con­gre­ga­tion are: the call and dis­missal of the Pas­tor, approval of cap­i­tal trans­ac­tions of the church cor­po­ra­tion and amend­ments to the church constitution.

(Top)

F. The Annual Congregational Meeting

1. This church shall in the month of April call for an annu­al church meet­ing. The Pas­tor shall pre­side at the annu­al meet­ing. In his absence the Chair­man of the Board of Elders shall preside.

2. Spe­cial con­gre­ga­tion­al meet­ings may be called by the Board of Elders. A notice shall appear in the week­ly church bul­letin two Sun­days in advance of the meet­ing. The pur­pose of the meet­ing shall be stat­ed in the pub­lished announce­ment. All con­gre­ga­tion­al meet­ings are lim­it­ed to the mem­bers of this church.

3. A quo­rum shall con­sist of all of the vot­ing mem­bers in atten­dance at any con­gre­ga­tion­al meeting.

4. All votes shall be passed by a majority.

5. The agen­da of the con­gre­ga­tion­al meet­ing shall be restrict­ed to the offi­cial agen­da as estab­lished by the Board of Elders.

(Top)

G. Deacons

Dea­cons shall be appoint­ed by the Pas­tor. Their pur­pose will be to min­is­ter in offi­cial capac­i­ties with­in the church and to assist the Pas­tor in his var­i­ous duties in the church. There shall be no offi­cial board of dea­cons but each shall serve in his spec­i­fied position.

ARTICLE VII CHURCH MEETINGS

A. The church shall con­duct reg­u­lar­ly sched­uled meet­ings for wor­ship, edi­fi­ca­tion and evan­ge­lism on Sun­day morn­ings and Sun­day evenings at a time set by the Board of Elders. There shall also be mid week ser­vice and oth­er meet­ings as deemed necessary.

B. The church shall peri­od­i­cal­ly observe the Lord’s Sup­per (Com­mu­nion) and pro­vide new believ­ers with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to fol­low the Lord in Chris­t­ian bap­tism by immersion.

(Top)

ARTICLE VIII CHURCH PROPERTY

This church may acquire, own, dis­pose of, encum­ber, and con­vey prop­er­ty, real and per­son­al, for church pur­pos­es in con­for­mi­ty with this con­sti­tu­tion and the laws of the state in which the prop­er­ty is located.

(Top)

ARTICLE IX FINANCES

A. The reg­u­lar sup­port of Grace Bible Church shall be on a free-will offer­ing basis from those led by God to con­tribute to its support.

B. The Chris­t­ian School finan­cial basis shall be from tuition pay­ments col­lect­ed from each stu­dent in the school. Chil­dren enrolled in the school shall be required to have a finan­cial spon­sor to meet their finan­cial require­ments for school atten­dance. The tuition rates shall be sub­ject to the deci­sion of the school board under the aus­pices of the church Board of Elders.

C. The Board of Elders shall be empow­ered to declare the neces­si­ty of and set a date for the col­lec­tion of spe­cial offer­ings. These offer­ings shall be tak­en to pro­vide for spe­cial projects that relate to the min­istries of the church.

(Top)

ARTICLE X ORDINATION

It shall be with­in the pow­er of the board of Elders of this church to ordain into the gospel min­istry men whom it is believed God has equipped and called. It shall have the pow­er to call ordi­na­tion coun­cils and issue prop­er credentials.

(Top)

ARTICLE XI — AMENDMENT PROCEDURES

This con­sti­tu­tion may be amend­ed by the fol­low­ing pro­ce­dure: The Board of Elders may request to amend the con­sti­tu­tion of this church. Upon 100% approval of the Board of Elders, the pro­posed amend­ment shall be put to the mem­ber­ship for a vote. This vote shall be tak­en not less than 30 days from the date of the pro­pos­al of the amend­ment and shall be in force when 75% of the mem­ber­ship votes for the proposal

Proudly powered by WordPress