Most churches don’t think much about their bylaws .... until a crisis arises! In such cases church leaders turn to their bylaws to find a way through the crisis. Hopefully these leaders find their bylaws to be incredibly helpful. But sometimes, they find them to be a useless ornament (if they fail to anticipate the issue the church is currently facing).

Unfortunately, the time to amend and update the bylaws is long before such a crisis arises. Once the crisis appears, it’s too late.

The bylaws linked to below are recommended by the District Presbytery. The Presbytery reviews these documents on a regular basis, to ensure that they comply with all current laws, that they embody best-practices, and are consistent with the theology, policies, and principles of the Assemblies of God. If your church has not updated your bylaws in ten years or more, it is our recommendation that the church adopt these by “substitution” rather than a line-by-line amendment process. Please contact the District Secretary-Treasurer for some counsel on how your church can easily update your bylaws.

Download Recommended Bylaws (Microsoft Word format, in a zip archive

View or Download Recommended Bylaws (Adobe Reader format)