On February 5th, 2023, the Winter Congregational Meeting was held and action was taken by active members to submit ballots on the proposed Congregational Leadership Covenant.  Voting Results – 415 ballots were collected. Of the ballots collected, 12 were unable to verify for active membership, 7 abstained, 16 opposed, and 380 affirmed the adoption.  Taking out the abstentions & non-verified ballots, 95.9% of the church family affirmed the adoption of the Congregational Leadership Covenant

PowerPoint Showing Differences Between Existing Bylaws and Proposed Congregational Leadership Covenant

God has used our senior pastor transition, the pandemic, our budget adjustments, and staff realignment to move Lake Avenue Church to an exceptional place of openness and expectancy. We are yielding to the Holy Spirit as He leads us in new ways that are rooted in our history yet leaning into the future.

As we continue to look ahead to how Jesus Christ will lead His church forward in our next season, your Lake Avenue Church leadership is pleased to present a newly revised Congregational Leadership Covenant for the congregation's review, consideration, and action. If approved, this Covenant will function as our new bylaws, preserving important essentials of who we are while making good and necessary changes which will allow us all to better carry out the ministry and mission of our church.

Over the past few years, hundreds in our Congregation have been working on and discussing the proposed Covenant. Scores of people have made positive and negative comments, raised important questions, and offered helpful suggestions. This led to many significant improvements which now make the Covenant a better fit for our church. To see the revised Covenant, and to read a discussion of these changes and copies showing the changes, please see links below.

As a good starting place, please read these two pages linked below: The Big Picture (on one page) and What will and will not change if we adopt the Covenant.

Several have wondered how the church leadership will be structured if we remove the specific organizational provisions of the current Bylaws. In response to these sincere concerns, the Ministry Council has adopted a Ministry Oversight Structure and several Initial Policies and Procedures to become effective if and when the Covenant is adopted, which can then be modified by the Elder Council. Together with the Covenant, these cover the essential provisions of the current Bylaws. You may read them through the links below.

Some have also wondered about the transition between the Bylaws and the Congregational Leadership Covenant and whether changes will be made if (as we expect) the Covenant is not perfect. These are addressed in the proposed adoption resolution, which is linked below.

The final round of reconsideration and revision of the Covenant has been led by a special team formed this summer at the request of the Ministry Council. Pastor Mathew John and Church Chair Dan Crichton brought together Bill Podley, Lee Merritt, Richard Chinen, Irv Rager, Ella Lau, Jeff Liou, and Bob Sloat. The nine of them have met and emailed and worked together over the last several months, proposing modifications to the Covenant and other supporting documents which the Ministry Council has adopted for presentation to the Congregation.

This team will lead us in the final phase of our bylaw renewal process: providing the documents linked below, leading a Bylaw Update Open House at 7 pm on Wednesday, January 11, meeting with adult classes upon request, receiving and responding to your online and in-person comments and questions, and leading the discussion as we vote on the Congregational Leadership Covenant at our Congregational Meeting on Sunday, February 5 immediately after the service. Adoption of the Covenant requires approval by 75% of those who vote, so every member's  participation in the decision is essential.

At our January 11 Bylaw Update Open House about 80 people joined us to ask questions and make comments and suggestions; you can view the Open House through the link below.  We also received further written and in-person comments.  These and other interactions led to a handful of further revisions to the text of the Congregational Leadership Covenant, which you can see through the link below.  Probably most significant, the number of members required to formally propose an amendment to the Covenant was reduced from 100 to 25, and the number who can require a vote on an amendment was reduced from 200 to 100.

Please read through the Congregational Leadership Covenant (it is only 10 pages), then read the 21 pages of the current Bylaws; both are linked below. Then ask God to help you discern which is better for our church.

And please be in prayer for all of us as we approach this important decision.

Bylaw Open House January 2023