Members entrust church leaders with legal and ethical responsibilities. This article shows how to maintain that trust.
Corporate board members in the business community are legally required to work ethically. The same standard of intelligent, loyal care is appropriate for clergy and lay leadership and may, under some circumstances, be legally required.
A congregation's governing body is, generally speaking, legally responsible for most of what happens at the institution, including off-site activities. Leaders are expected to assume this responsibility in good faith.
The following practices are not all required by law. But they express good faith and give substance to the desire to be responsible in leadership activity. They can be useful not only to members of the governing body but to anyone doing congregational business.
Suggestions for Decision-makers
1. Remember the purpose and mission of your congregation, and always work for its best interests.
2. Become familiar with your church structure and rules. [The constitution and bylaws appear in the front of the Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook and discuss the structure of the worldwide church organization. The Yearbook should be available in your church office. On the local level, the critical rules that Seventh-day Adventist congregations have accepted for themselves can be found in the Church Manual.]
3. Be known for your faithful attendance at meetings and keep careful records of your work.
4. Being a yes-person all the time is as disastrous as being a no-person all the time. Take responsibility for your own decisions. Without intellectual independence and integrity, a leader devalues his or her role in the community.
5. Brush up on your analytical skills! Remember to listen to all points of view. Ask questions until you are satisfied that everything is on the table. Be willing to make mistakes, and on discovering them, be quick to correct yourself.
6. Give financial documents and decisions special attention. When you do not understand a financial issue or report, continue asking questions until you do. If you object to a financial decision, voice your concern, and have your vote recorded in the minutes.
7. Let your conscience be your guide when voting, and be willing to disagree.
8. Investigate difficulties, seeking a healing outcome. Sweeping problems under the rug usually guarantees bigger problems in the future.
9. Follow the rules. This includes obeying the law, spending money as designated by appropriate decision-making bodies, and following the strictures of the congregation's founding and corporate documents.
10. Build at least two people into the information loop regarding money, pledged, collected, and disbursed. The best person to propose a more-thanone policy is the treasurer, to keep feelings from being hurt.
11. Turn to experts when making decisions regarding property, legal matters, and bonds or securities associated with fund-raising. Securities law is particularly complex and demanding, with both the agents and the securities requiring registration, unless specifically exempted.
12. Make a habit of talking about important issues to members of the congregation, help keep lines of communication open, and correct false rumors.
13. Learn to be wise supervisors. The relationship between clergy and governing board is complex and in need of ongoing respect and care. Abuse can come from either side of this relationship.
14. Be fair and affirming to others, the secretary, choir director, custodian, and to volunteers, vendors, and contracted service providers.
Maintaining a Legal Frame of Reference
Leadership means carrying a greater burden of responsibility before the law than other members. This does not mean that you need to become a lawyer, nor does it mean that most decisions made by a governing board need the nod of an attorney. It does suggest the wisdom of knowing the scope of your responsibilities and endeavoring to fulfill them in good faith. Leaders are legally enjoined to be prudent─careful with the authority entrusted to them.
Some specific legal constraints exist which leaders need to know:
Suggestions for Obeying the Law
1. Resist any personal financial profit from your leadership activity.
2. Bylaws define the scope of leadership responsibility and the procedures for decisionmaking in the community. They deserve to be treated as legally binding. Ignoring bylaws undermines any leader's credibility and record. If existing bylaws do not serve the congregation well, go through the appropriate procedures to amend them.
3. Contract law is an elaborate system for keeping promises. Leaders need to know how the system works. Breach of contract creates financial vulnerability. Never sign a contract for the congregation without authorization or indicating your official role. Legally, the use of the preposition "by" when signing establishes that the signer is acting as an agent and, consequently, is not personally liable (as long as signing is within the scope of his or her authority).
4. Never voice a congregation's endorsement or support of a political candidate. Joining a candidate's political campaign threatens your nonprofit tax exemption. Endorsing and supporting legislation is allowed, however, as long as it does not represent a substantial portion (more than 10 or 15 percent) of the congregation's program or budget. [This law applies to the United States, but is good policy in every country.]
Most important, leaders must do their work without negligence. Most civil suits against congregations involve injury as a result of allegedly negligent leadership. Taking care may come naturally to a faithful person; in the eyes of the court it is mandatory for leaders vested with corporate authority. In some states directors and officers are held personally liable for negligently performing their duties.
Examples of negligent leadership:
1. Knowingly allowing an unsafe condition to exist, in the facility or in an activity, which causes injury or death.
2. Writing checks against insufficient funds.
3. Carelessly supervising activities so that injury or death results.
4. Allowing or authorizing copyright infringement.
5. Making false statements to a potential donor, lender, or extender of credit.
6. Terminating an employee for an insufficient or impermissible reason.
7. Causing injury through careless driving while on church business.
In short, negligence causes accidents, and accidents cause pain and suffering. Lawsuits and severe court judgments may result.
PAUL CHAFFEE
The above condensation from Chapter 2 of Paul Chaffee's book Accountable Leadership concerns the church and the law and is written for congregations in the United States. The principles, though, apply to local church leadership around the world. Published last July, the book is a guide through legal, financial, and ethical issues facing congregations. Chaffee's experience includes pastoral work, staff work in nonprofit agencies, research and writing for the United Church of Christ insurance program, and editing a monthly newspaper. The book can be obtained from ChurchCare Publishing, 2107 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94109 (1-800-230-4635), 251 pages, US$14.95, postpaid.
