Amendment Approved Unanimously at the
Annual Business Meeting
January27th, 2002
The changes do not
represent a major overhaul but do a tuneup to make it run better. The following
summarizes the areas where adjustments are made and the nature of the changes:
ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION
MEMBERSHIP
·
Members will have the added
responsibility to see that the church operates in a way that glorifies God.
·
Members will be able to resign
their membership verbally by telling at least two Deacons.
·
All changes in the membership role
will be made at regular Deacons meetings and recorded in the minutes.
MEETINGS
·
Article VI is revised such that
the Annual Business Meeting and other business meetings are equivalent except
that the Annual Business Meeting is required.
·
Roberts' Rules of Order will be
used only as a guide at the discretion of the Chairman. If there is a dispute
on the conduct of the meeting, the meeting may be adjourned with all transacted
business nullified by a 2/3 vote of members present and voting. If this is
done, any meeting within the next three months must follow Roberts' Rules of
Order.
·
Voting is changed to state that a
majority vote of members present and voting prevails. Specification of
other votes throughout the Constitution have also been changed to members
present and voting. This is the current practice. With such a vote,
abstentions are not counted. If the vote were decided by members present,
abstentions would count as a 'no' and a count of members present would
theoretically have to be taken before each vote. The election of Deacon is
decided by the latter method as described below.
·
The method for placing business
items on the meeting agenda is added. Agenda items are determined by the
Deacons or by request of 20% of the members.
·
No motion will be voted on unless
stated in the agenda. This was specified only for Special Business Meetings but
now applies to all business meetings. However, specific permission is added for
advisory polls on issues not on the agenda.
STATEMENT OF FAITH
·
Section J has been split into two
parts. The new Section J deals only with "Eternal
State" and the new Section K
covers Rapture and Resurrection. This allows the membership requirement to be
stated simply as "Sections A through J" rather than "Sections A through J, parts
a, b, and c."
·
Peripheral and duplicative Bible
verse references have been deleted and, in some cases, new verses have been
added to make the reference sections concise and directly supportive of the
doctrines being listed.
·
Pastor Einspahr has revised the
new Section N - Great Tribulation, Section R - Dispensational Viewpoint and
Section S - Death of Christ.
AMENDMENTS TO THE ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION
·
Article VIII has been split into
two Sections with subparts to clarify the requirements.
·
Amendments will be required to be
announced from the pulpits on four Sundays prior to the meeting instead of once
four weeks prior to the meeting.
·
The Bylaws and Articles of
Incorporation will be amended by the same process and with the same
requirements. This requires amendments to the bylaws to be done at an Annual
Business Meeting.
BYLAWS
PASTOR
·
The Pastor will be the final
authority, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in all matters of Bible
doctrine is clarified to exclude the Statement of Faith which can be
amended only by a vote at a meeting of the members.
·
Provision is added to recommend a
pastor candidate by petition of 50% of the members.
·
Dismissal of the pastor is
revised. First, provision is added for recommendation for dismissal by petition
of at least 50% of the members. The current Bylaws call for the case for
dismissal to be "tried" at a Deacons meeting. This has been changed so that
both the "trial" and vote for dismissal are at a Business Meeting of the
members.
DEACONS
·
Deacon candidates will be
nominated only if they accept the nomination.
·
An option has been added in the
election of Deacons to cast votes for “neither candidate”. The deacon candidate
receiving the most votes is elected unless there is a tie or “neither candidate”
receives the most votes. If no deacon is elected, the current Deacons will
nominate two different candidates and call another special business meeting
within six weeks to hold another election.
·
Provision is made for the Deacon
to be elected by coin toss if there is a tie vote, and if 2/3 of the members
present and voting request it.
·
Changing the number of Deacons
will require a vote of 2/3 of the number of members present and voting rather
than a simple majority.
·
A subpart is added describing the
process by which a Deacon may resign either in writing or verbally.
DEACON BOARD
·
The current Chairman of the Deacon
Board will be called the President instead.
·
Business will be decided by a
majority vote of members of the Deacon Board present and voting to be consistent
with business meetings of the members in the Articles of Incorporation. Note
that, with three Deacons, a majority, a 2/3 majority, and present versus present
and voting are all equivalent.
·
Notice of a Deacons meeting may be
waived by unanimous consent of all the Deacons. This allows official business
to be transacted quickly in an emergency.
·
The Member who audits the
financial records will be required not only to be a non-Deacon, as currently
required, but must also not have been a Deacon during the period the financial
transactions were made.
·
Deacons are required to post
minutes of their meetings.
MISSIONARIES
·
The current Bylaws have the
Members approve support of missionaries while the Deacons decide the amount of
support and termination of support. This is changed to required the Members to
terminate support though the Deacons still set the amount, including zero.
·
A 3/4 vote of Members present and
voting will be required to approve or terminate support of a missionary instead
of a simple majority.
·
A requirement is added that the
Deacon Board must confirm that a missionary's doctrinal position conforms with
Sections A-F of the Statement of Faith, consistent with our Tenets.
CHURCH PROPERTY
·
A 2/3 vote of Members present and
voting, instead of a simple majority, will be require to buy or sell property
over 25% of the prior years income, to enter leases of a year or more, or to
contract for loans over $5000.
AMENDMENTS
·
Amendments to the Bylaws will be
accomplished in the same way and with the same requirements as Amendments to the
Articles of Incorporation. This matches the past practice to amend both at the
same time.
PROPOSED MOTION TO ADOPT AMENDMENT
The Members of Columbia
Bible Church hereby adopt the amendment to the Constitution described by the
underline-strikeout version dated (11/23/01) attached, allowing correction of
grammatical and typographical errors, provided that an affirmative vote is cast
by ninety percent (90%) of the members present and voting. [Note that the
current Constitution requires a vote of 3/4 of the members present for
adoption. Note also that the balance of this Annual Business Meeting will be
conducted under the current Constitution]
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