My congregation is considering closing and dispersing due to a continued decrease in attendance and the inability to draw new members or visitors.<\/p>\n
Now I hear we have to have approval from our “board of directors”? Does each church of Christ have a board of directors?<\/p>\n
Thank you very much for your help.<\/p>\n\t
How to answer your question depends on how your church was started.<\/p>\n
When a congregation owns a building or has a bank account, the government requires that there be someone designated to own the property, 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 people. If individuals owned the property on behalf of the church, the property 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. Having a corporation own the property is more expedient under United States law because trustees can be named to fulfill the legal requirement, and they are easily changed as time passes.<\/p>\n
Thus, when a congregation is forced to close, it is up to the trustees to act according to the will of the congregation. This is why they are trustees and not directors. Trustees fulfill the trust placed in them. Directors make decisions that others are expected to follow. The trustees would meet and log that the congregation decided to disband. All property would have to be sold, paperwork submitted to the government to notify it that the congregation no longer exists, and the remaining funds distributed as the congregation decides. Generally, most distribute the money to support preachers in other areas or if most are joining up with another congregation, the money is sent to that congregation.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 much for your help. Answer:…<\/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,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[667],"class_list":["post-44464","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":4225,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-biblical-to-have-a-board-of-trustee\/","url_meta":{"origin":44464,"position":0},"title":"Is it biblical to have a board of trustees?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":44464,"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":47143,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-should-we-do-since-we-learned-the-elders-are-misspending-the-lords-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":44464,"position":2},"title":"What should we do since we learned the elders are misspending the Lord’s money?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! I have read and searched through your question and answer section to make sure this question hasn't been asked before, so I hope it has not. My husband is a preacher for the church for many years. Recently, he has learned certain information in regard to how our\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":44464,"position":3},"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":18755,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-it-be-wrong-to-use-the-churchs-property-for-a-garden\/","url_meta":{"origin":44464,"position":4},"title":"Would it be wrong to use the church’s property for a garden?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it OKfor a congregation to allow members to use the property to grow a garden if they are in need?\u00a0 One example may be a guy who is living in an apartment and has no property. Another may be a family who has a nice lawn and doesn't\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":5736,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/church-supported-orphans-homes-what-was-the-issue\/","url_meta":{"origin":44464,"position":5},"title":"Church-Supported Orphans’ Homes: What Was the Issue?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bill Hall It was a difficult time.\u00a0 I don't know that I could in any way picture for you if you didn't live then, just how difficult that time was.\u00a0 Back somewhere in the mid-50s, in the pages of the Gospel Advocate, a quarantine was called for against all\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44464","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=44464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}