One of the biggest questions on the minds of church leaders whose goal is to start a new church or ministry in their community, is where they can find a sample church by law. This signifies their astuteness in recognizing the importance of this task.

A sample church by law document is essential to work off of when structuring the constitution and bylaws for a new church planting. The only problem is that you're not very likely to find a good sample just anywhere. Obviously you're going to have to locate an expert resource that bases its sample church by law documents on extensive expertise and experience.

Why is this important? Because a church's constitution and by laws are among the most important documents owned by any church, but particularly by a church start-up. It's where the church will make statements and representations that may hurt it or help it later. Obviously, the goal is to make only helpful statements.

What does all this mean? Basically, it means that if there is ever a need to defend itself against a lawsuit, or other similar proceeding, the church will be held to the representations in its constitution and bylaws... to the extent they can be used for or against the church in the litigation context. Of course, it should go without saying that everything can be used for or against a defendant in court.

By starting off with an expertly written sample church by law document to base it constitution and bylaws on, a church goes a long way toward defending and protecting its interests in the future. One never knows when the issue will arise. But it's important to understand that every year for the last 10 to 15 years, litigation against churches has been on the rise.

Be careful not to rely on secular lawyers and other so-called "expert" service providers. Unless they are intimately familiar with even the most subtle of needs that churches have, they simply won't do. Instead, you owe it to yourself and your ministry to take a closer look at the gold standard in use today of hundreds of churches nationwide. It's called Building On Faith: Everything You Need To Know About Starting Your Own Church. And it's written by Abe Hernandez, Esq., a devoted Christian and church law expert.