The Be in Christ Church has historically defined its polity around the concept of a brotherhood model. Although now anachronistic, the brotherhood term was intended to communicate the concept of an egalitarian community. The goal of this model was to define a polity that was connectional in nature and representative in government. That is, on levels beyond the congregation, the church is governed by its elected representatives. Each congregation has considerable authority to decide its own affairs, but certain decisions and policies are made at the denominational level by representatives from the congregations and church leadership.

Because most denominations fall into one category or the other, often people ask are you ‘Episcopalian’ or ‘Congregational’ in your governance structure? The answer is that we are both in that we are hybrid of both systems. Some parts of our governance are ‘Congregational’ in form representing the brotherhood values that come from our historic values. In other ways, leaders have the responsibility and authority to act on behalf of the organization as a whole and therefore we function more as ‘Episcopalian.’ If anything, we tip the scales more towards Episcopalian in overall function. For example, it is the right of the church board to hire a new pastor on behalf of the congregation. Many church boards choose to have a potential new pastor preach on a Sunday and interact with the congregation but there is no governance requirement. Many of us have been hired by a church yet never attended or preached at the church until our first Sunday of employment. 

Our approach to governance might represent a significant difference from your past experience so it is important to read the various documents on this website to better understand how our denominational family functions. Below are some specific examples of how our polity might be fundamentally different from your past experience.

CHURCH GOVERNANCE

In accordance with our governance documents, local congregations function under the oversight of denominational leadership and, therefore, denominational leaders are welcomed partners in the healthy functioning of each local congregation. As ministry partners, denominational leaders are welcome to meet with a local congregation’s governing board, pastoral leaders, and the congregation at large, in order to resource, encourage and counsel pastors, governing boards and congregations as deemed necessary by the denomination.

As denominational leaders, we consider this arrangement as a partnership with the Lead Pastor and would not meet with anyone in local church leadership without the knowledge of the Lead Pastor. 

LOCAL CHURCH PROPERTY

The historical Anabaptist movement held a value that was sometimes identified as “all things in common” based on the Acts 2 description of the formation of the early church where believers shared freely with one another. The BIC rejected the reformed belief in the autonomy of the local church. As an example of the brotherhood model, there was a period when neither church nor parishioner would carry property insurance because their insurance was their brotherhood. When one person experienced a loss, the entire group would step in and fill the need.

This value described above led the BIC denomination to adopt a federated ownership model for church properties. In this federated approach, the buildings belong to “all of us” as a church family in the way the Parliament buildings belong to all Canadians. This model has some practical implications. One, this means that the valuation of the property should not be listed as a congregational asset on the local church financial statements. Second, this model requires that a denominational leader would sign any real estate documents and legal transaction documents for a church unless the church is incorporated. 

The congregation is responsible for the day to day upkeep of the church building and property, including providing the necessary finances. If a building is sold the money comes back to the BIC where it is held in trust for the church until they need it again for a capital project. Our policy does not allow for a church to use the selling of capital assets for operational costs.

PASTORAL CREDENTIALS

As a pastor with our denomination, it is important that you understand that in our structure, it is the denomination that provides ministerial credentials to a pastor and not the local church. Although a church can make a decision to hire a pastor it is not guaranteed that the hired pastor will be granted credentials and the title of pastor until you receive credentials from the denominational leadership staff. For information about how the credentialing process works, visit the Credentialing section on the menu.

PASTORAL REVIEW

As a pastor with the BIC, the denominational leadership will conduct reviews with your church board every five years or when deemed necessary by the Executive Director of the BIC. This review process is provided for both the benefit of the Lead Pastor and the local church. For more information on how the Pastoral Review process functions, visit the Pastoral Review section on the menu.