By-Laws Revisions 2025

The By-Laws were last revisited in 2013. As part of good governance, we did another review of the By-Laws and are proposing some changes to the congregation. Any change requires ⅔ majority approval at a congregational meeting, except for any change to the Statement of Faith (of which we are proposing one, Section 2.09), which requires a 90% majority approval.

We will have a Q&A on October 19 and any questions should be submitted to elders@indychinesechurch.org by October 12.

Proposed Redline of By-Laws

Reasons for Proposed Changes

Section 2.09

  • Propose to remove the phrase “and pre-millenial”
  • We do not believe the issue of pre-millenial, post-millenial or amillenial is a core doctrinal issue

Section 3.06

  • Propose to change the standard from attending 1x every 6 months, to instead be “regular” attendance of Sunday Worship
  • We believe Sunday Worship is a critical part of both Christian life and also church membership. Small Groups and Fellowship activities are important but Sunday Worship should serve as the foundation.
  • We are intentionally not defining how to quantify “regularly”, though we are comfortable it is more than 1x every 6mo. We do not think this should be a legalistic issue and we are not interested in tracking attendance. We believe we can use common sense and a reasonable interpretation.
  • We understand that from time to time, there will be certain circumstances preventing Sunday attendance, including health / mobility issues or job duties. This is another reason we do not want to define a certain # or % of attendance.

Section 4.01

  • Propose to remove Sunday School from the definition of Worship Services
  • Because we are looking for “regular” attendance to Sunday Worship, we are also tightening the definition of Sunday Worship so that Sunday School attendance, though encouraged, is not a membership requirement.

Section 5.02

  • Propose that the Scriptural standards for Elders are a requirement for qualification, not just a consideration.
  • Propose that Elders need to abide by all Membership Duties.
  • Propose that, in addition to Deacon service, meaningful service in key ministries also meets the requirements for experience.

Section 6.03

  • Propose that the Scriptural standards are a requirement for qualification, not just a consideration.
  • Propose that Deacons need to abide by all Membership Duties.

Section 6.07

  • Propose to simplify the list of duties of Deacons, in order to give the church more latitude in the types of Deacons we have, so that the roles can adjust over time, instead of being permanently tied to these specific areas.

Section 6.10

  • Propose to make the language here match to the same section for Elders (5.07); unclear why the standard was any different.