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Regarding Wednesday's Vote

CLICK HERE to view a summary of the proposed bylaws.
CLICK HERE to view the actual proposed bylaws.

Dear Cypress Street Family,

In this first of two emails regarding Wednesday's Special Business Meeting (6:30pm in the Fellowship Hall) to vote on the adoption of new bylaws, I wanted to re-share a little of the vision behind this proposal.

Very few of us get excited about things like bylaws :) More often than not, we consider them a necessary evil. And yet, they can have an impact on the effectiveness of a church. Bad or even outdated bylaws can make it unnecessarily difficult for a church to get things done or to raise up new leadership and fresh ideas. Good bylaws can encourage unity and effective teamwork.

The bylaws we have been operating under have served our church well for decades. But they also haven't been significantly updated in decades. Church ministries and strategies have changed over the course of time and our church's leadership believes we would benefit from bylaws that better reflect those changes.

As your pastor, my greatest hope in all this is for a chance to be more purposeful in raising up strong spiritual leadership from within the church. Bylaws can't make that happen but they can make it easier. Let's be just as purposeful in selecting a few men and/or women to serve alongside the pastor in spiritual-leadership as we have always been in selecting individuals for business-leadership!

I trust that encouraging stronger leadership from within the church can only be a healthy thing in the long run. I believe it will also serve to lend greater stability in seasons where a pastor might be in poor health and even when the church finds itself between pastors.

Finally, if anything about this proposed change is gnawing at you (or you just have questions), I ask you to please contact myself or a member of the bylaws committee directly before Wednesday night. The bylaws committee includes Nancy Elmore, Pat Eads and Ruth Coody. It's always best to come straight to the source and any of us would be glad to visit with you this week (except Ruth who is in the hospital in poor health, please continue to keep her in your prayers).

Thank you and I hope to see you Wednesday,