I am now leading my third Church through the creation of Bylaws or recreating them after years of neglect. Along with that, I am putting together a policy and procedure manual to accompany them. Once again, I am spending long hours reading administrative paperwork for the Church.

Every time I do this or walk someone else through this adventure, I realize that most smaller Churches create policies to fix problems that happened in the past. For example, once upon a time, a person tried to take over the Church, and they set up policies so that would never happen again. Someone attempted to sway a vote for something, and they developed a plan to prevent its recurrence. 

For the local Church to grow and move forward in ministry, it must stop looking at the past and turn its thoughts toward the present and the future. Instead of trying to fix yesterday’s mistakes, the Church should make plans for a more significant impact in the name of Jesus tomorrow. It is a subtle shift but necessary to reach people for Jesus.