There are many advantages of being a part of a large, growing church like ours. Powerful worship, diverse ministries, intense training program, fun fellowship and friendly atmosphere where you can comfortably bring your unbelieving friends are some of the benefits that I can think of.
However, we could also think of several potential drawbacks of being part of a big church. One of them is the rising complexity in operations. The more people you have the more relationships and communication channels you will have. This could mean that we are stuck with a more complicated operational system.
This is where policies come in. Policies are there not to make people’s lives more complicated but to help people get things done more efficiently. Without the right and appropriate policies, we could misunderstand each other unnecessarily and run into all kinds of conflicts. So, let me introduce to you a few existing and new policies that the team leaders have come up with over the past few years.
In regards to getting reimbursement?
Many of us have purchased things for church and have received reimbursement at one time or another. I first want to thank you for serving the church. I am also very grateful for our Administration Team promptly reimbursing people when they turn in their forms. However, there have been times when some of you have turned in your receipts and forms more than several months after the purchase. This creates problems in our finance system. So, we would like to ask you to turn in your receipts and reimbursement forms no later than three months after the purchase date.
Also, New Life, as a non-profit organization, is exempt from paying sales tax. Therefore, when you purchase things for church, make sure you pick up a tax-exempt form from the church office and use it. If you turn in your receipts with tax paid, we will kindly ask you to go back to the store and get the tax exempted. Let’s be good stewards of God’s resources.
In regards to organizing mission trips?
It is exciting to see various house churches talking about going overseas to meet and serve together with their sponsored missionaries for a short term. I want to encourage more house churches to do this. However, all the logistics must be shared and discussed with our Missions Team leader by the end of October for the following year’s trip. We will need time to plan out the budget accordingly to fund and support all the mission trips that will take place the next year. If you are led and prompted to go overseas all of a sudden, by all means obey God and go. But please do not expect New Life to fund part of your trip. Once we start making exceptions for certain individuals, there will be no end as to how much and how many individuals we may need to support.
In regards to church van and facility usage?
We are blessed to have a 15-passenger church van. We have used it to go to various places as a group, and it has provided many opportunities for us to bond and fellowship with one another. If you want to reserve it, you must submit the van usage permission form two weeks in advance. The order of usage priority is first, church-wide ministry, second, house church purpose, and third, personal use. When you want to use it for your house church or personal use, there is a $50/day usage fee.
The same goes for the church facilities. If you need to use a certain space in church, please turn in the facility usage permission form two weeks in advance. Otherwise, we will not be able to make it available for you. Remember, if you plan ahead and request for space in time, you will be given the permission to use it almost 100% of the time.
In regards to various retreat subsidies?
The church often has generously covered about 50% of the total retreat cost for everyone, including people from different churches, but from now on, we will limit subsidies only to our members both in town and out of town, house church members and regular attendees to our Sunday worship.
I think these are very reasonable boundaries and hope they make sense to you.
Your pastor,
Eric
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