The Saints decide on matters that touch the body’s commitment, identity, and legal-structural form. These decisions fall into two kinds, and the difference between them matters.
Decisions of all contributing Saints — the annual plan. The body’s commitment to the year’s work is affirmed by every Saint who is contributing to the church, whether through giving, through service, or through both. This is a spiritual act of corporate commitment — the body saying yes to the work it will carry and fund together — not an exercise of legal control over the entity. It is therefore not restricted to formal Members. A Saint pledging their giving and their labour to the year ahead has a voice in the plan they are helping to carry.
Members’ votes — the legal-entity decisions. A second set of decisions govern the church as an incorporated legal body: its Constitution, the leadership it fronts to the regulator, the audited account of its stewardship, its property and borrowing, its affiliation, and its continued existence. The law reserves these to the formal Members of the church, cast at a General Meeting. A Saint who has not taken up formal Membership does not cast these particular votes.
Membership is always optional. Participation in the whole life of the body — worship, fellowship, ministry, mission, the gifts and calling journey, the annual planning workshops, and the affirmation of the annual plan itself — is open to every Saint with no prerequisite. Formal Membership adds one specific thing: a voice and a vote on the legal-entity decisions in the second table below. A Saint ready to carry that legal voice is warmly encouraged into Membership; a Saint not yet ready is just as warmly welcomed to keep walking with, giving to, serving, and shaping the body.
See Section 7 for how Membership fits, and the Example Constitution (Document 11) for the formal terms.
Decisions of all contributing Saints
Affirmed by every Saint contributing to the church through giving or service — not restricted to formal Members.
| # | Decision | Why it is open to all contributing Saints |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Annual plan approval (the budget) | The body votes to approve the year’s plan — the Annual Prospectus, with its priority order and each work’s minimum, ideal and stretch. This is the moment of corporate commitment to the year’s work, and it belongs to everyone helping to carry that work, not only to formal Members. The body approves the plan; the Eldership then allocates what is actually given down that published order, and that final allocation is not returned to a vote (Doc 5, Section 5.9). |
| 2 | Confirmation of the Annual Prospectus | The same act as the plan-approval vote above, seen from the other side: the body receives the Eldership’s scoping for the year and commits — through their giving and participation — to support the work. One vote approves the plan; the giving and the Eldership’s allocation follow it. |
| 3 | Standing with the Eldership at public installation of new Elders, Deacons, and Five-Fold ministers | Not a vote on whether the person qualifies (that is the Eldership’s discernment) — but a public confirmation and prayer that the whole body stands with the leadership the Lord has raised. Open to all the Saints, Members and non-Members alike. |
Members’ votes — legal-entity decisions
Reserved by law to the formal Members of the church, cast at a General Meeting. See the Example Constitution (Document 11, clause 7.5).
| # | Decision | Why this belongs to the Members |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Constitution adoption | The Constitution is the body’s contract with itself, governing how every other decision is made. The Members must adopt it because it is theirs to be governed by. |
| 2 | Constitutional amendment | Once adopted, the Constitution can only be changed by the Members who live under it. Special Resolution (75% supermajority) is typical. |
| 3 | Annual audited financial statements (receive and consider) | The body has the right to see how its giving was stewarded — in full. The complete audited statements and the auditor’s report, not an abridged summary, are provided to the Members at least two weeks before the meeting, with the Committee, Eldership and Diaconate explaining any issue the audit raises and the plan to put it right. Given the six-weekly funding updates (Doc 5, Section 5.8), there should be no surprises. |
| 4 | Election of the Committee | The legal body that fronts the entity represents the church to the regulator. The Members must therefore choose it. |
| 5 | Calling a paid Pastor (the body’s role) | Selecting the person is the Eldership’s spiritual discernment and the employment is the Committee’s; what the body does varies by the church’s chosen model. Where the Constitution gives the Members a vote in the calling, it is exercised here. See “Calling and releasing paid pastoral staff” in Section 5. |
| 6 | Releasing a paid Pastor | Primarily an employment-law matter handled by the Committee under the jurisdiction’s law, with spiritual cause discerned by the Eldership. A confirming Members’ vote applies only where the Constitution requires it. See Section 5. |
| 7 | Calling and releasing Associate Pastors and paid staff | The same separation as the Senior Pastor: the Eldership selects for fit and oversight, the Committee handles the employment law. Operational and administrative staff carry no Members’ vote. See Section 5. |
| 8 | Major property transactions (purchase, sale, mortgage of significant church property) | Property is the legal body’s asset. Major commitment or disposal of it binds the entity, so it requires the Members’ assent. |
| 9 | Significant borrowing | Long-term liabilities are obligations of the legal entity, so this sits here by default — yet it is the giving of the whole body, Members and non-Members alike, that will retire the loan. Because the burden falls on all who give, the Eldership and Committee may, in prayer and at their discretion, widen this to an affirmation of all contributing Saints rather than a Members-only vote, weighing the scale and risk of the borrowing. See “Where the categories overlap” below. |
| 10 | Denominational affiliation changes (join, remain, withdraw) | A change of denominational covering changes the entity’s relationships and identity. The Members must decide the church’s own affiliation. |
| 11 | Winding-up of the church | Only the Members can lay the legal body down. Christ has called the body together; only the Members can dissolve the entity that fronts it. |
| 12 | Final-stage discipline appeal | Where a disciplined member appeals beyond the Eldership and Committee, the Members are the final court of appeal under the Constitution. |
Where the categories overlap — the Eldership’s discretion
A few decisions carry both a legal-entity character and a whole-body burden, and Scripture gives no fixed rule for exactly who should decide them. Significant borrowing is the clearest example: legally it obligates the incorporated entity, so by default it sits among the Members’ votes — but in practice it is the giving of the whole body, Members and non-Members alike, that will repay it over the years.
Where a decision sits on this line, the Eldership, together with the Committee, may determine in prayer and by discernment whether to hold it as a Members’ vote or to widen it to an affirmation of all contributing Saints. The scale, length, and risk of the commitment weigh in that judgement: a modest, short borrowing within the Committee’s delegated authority may simply be a Members’ matter, while a large, long, or risky one that the whole body will carry for years leans toward the whole body’s affirmation. Two things stay fixed regardless. First, the matters the law strictly reserves to Members — adopting and altering the Constitution, electing the Committee, receiving the audited statements, disposing of significant property, and winding-up — cannot be handed to a wider vote. Second, however the body affirms a borrowing, the Committee, as the entity legally competent to bind the church, formalises it.
This is the pattern for every genuinely open question in the framework: where there is no clear biblical precedent and no strict legal requirement, the Eldership resolves it through prayer, counsel, and discernment rather than by forcing a rigid rule (Proverbs 11:14; Acts 15:28).
Why this split, and not more of either? The annual plan is where the whole contributing body commits to the year’s work, so it is opened to every Saint carrying that work — Membership is not made a gate in front of it. The legal-entity decisions, by contrast, bind the incorporated church before the regulator and the law, and the law reserves them to the Members who front that entity. Beyond these, the Saints are not asked to vote on technical matters they cannot reasonably judge (which contractor to hire, which insurance policy to take), nor on spiritual matters where a vote is the wrong instrument (whether a particular person is being called to Eldership), nor on operational minutiae. They are asked to decide where the body’s commitment, resources, and identity are truly at stake.