Is it biblical to have a board of trustees?<\/p>\n\t
Governments exist by the authority of God (Romans 13:1-2). So long as the demands of a government do not violate the laws of God, there is every reason for Christians to be obedient to the government under which they exist.<\/p>\n
When a congregation owns a building, the government requires that there be someone designated to own the land, whether it be one or more individuals or a corporation. The preferred method is a corporation because people come and go. The existence of a congregation generally exceeds the life of the people in the congregation. If individuals owned the property for the church, it would have to be bought and sold as the people came and went. If someone died while owning the property, it would pass through that person’s inheritance. Such is both annoying and costly, especially if the heirs are not members of the church.<\/p>\n
Having a corporation own the property is more expedient under most government laws because trustees can be named to fulfill the legal requirement, and they are easily changed as time passes. When people move or die, different people can be appointed to be the designated trustees.<\/p>\n
The trustees have no authority in the church. They only exist to satisfy the government’s need for someone to communicate with and act on behalf of the congregation in government matters (such as signing tax-exempt forms or setting up bank accounts). Typically, most congregations designate the elders and deacons as trustees of the congregation’s property. If there are no elders and deacons, the men would have to be selected to act in that capacity for the congregation.<\/p>\n
This need for representatives to communicate with the government does not change the organization of the church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Is it biblical to have a board of trustees? Answer: Governments exist by the authority of God (Romans 13:1-2). So long as the demands of a government do not violate the laws of God, there is every reason for Christians to be obedient to the government under which they exist. When a congregation owns…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[667],"class_list":["post-4225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-organization-of-the-church"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":44464,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-churches-have-boards-of-directors\/","url_meta":{"origin":4225,"position":0},"title":"Do churches have boards of directors?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My congregation is considering closing and dispersing due to a continued decrease in attendance and the inability to draw new members or visitors. Now I hear we have to have approval from our \"board of directors\"? Does each church of Christ have a board of directors? Thank you very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28900,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-for-a-church-to-be-incorporated\/","url_meta":{"origin":4225,"position":1},"title":"Is it wrong for a church to be incorporated?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If a\u00a0 Christian does not want to attend an incorporated church because he says it's wrong, is it right for him and his wife to worship alone on the Lord's day because he says an incorporated church is in sin, and he cannot find a church that is not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7785,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-you-a-501c-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":4225,"position":2},"title":"Are you a 501C church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I ran across your site after my daughter asked me where can she find a clear and concise list of God's statutes.\u00a0 I pondered that for a while and happened upon\u00a0your explanation. It's perfect. Thank you. As is stated in Isaiah, \"For precept must be upon precept, precept upon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1328,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-socialism-a-biblical-concept\/","url_meta":{"origin":4225,"position":3},"title":"Is Socialism a Biblical Concept?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford Much to my surprise, for the first time that I can remember since the Cold War, there is a flurry of national interest in socialism. As someone who is a student of history, this concerns me. As someone who is politically unaligned, I\u2019m not sure what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54083,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-church-secretary-or-treasurer-a-permanent-position\/","url_meta":{"origin":4225,"position":4},"title":"Is a church secretary or treasurer a permanent position?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I want to know whether a church secretary, treasurer, etc. once appointed or chosen to that post is permanent, or they can be rotated on a tenure basis. Answer: There is no such office in the church as a secretary or treasurer. Duties, such as these, are usually filled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40312,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-an-organization-formed-to-meet-the-governments-requirements-have-any-say-over-congregations\/","url_meta":{"origin":4225,"position":5},"title":"Does an organization formed to meet the government’s requirements have any say over congregations?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings to you in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. How are the brethren over there? I want to thank you for the support you gave me whenever I come to you. I have always had it in mind that I will do my best to change things\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}