Church Policies and Templates
Our primary goal as churches should always be to see the gospel clearly proclaimed, but we also have a responsibility to ensure that our churches are run well in accordance with the requirements of the governing authorities (Romans 13) and that we use our resources for the good of the gospel.
Below is a collection of resources providing guidance and templates to help you with your church governance and ministry, with thanks to our partners The Church Office.
These template policies and procedures are ‘best practice’ documents and do not constitute legal advice. Churches are encouraged to tailor them to their specific needs; FIEC cannot be held responsible for any amendments you make to these documents.
Essential for All
Every Independent church is a charity, which is governed by charity law. Even those who are not required to register with the Charity Commission must still comply with charity law.
The primary document every church must have is a governing document, but there are also other essential policies that every church needs. You can find information about these by selecting the filter 'Essential for All' in the collection below.
But there's more...
Depending on your activities, there are more policies that may be necessary for your church. There are others that the Charity Commission state are minimum good practice you should follow unless there’s a good reason not to. We're working hard to grow the collection below to include as many of these as possible.
If there are specific templates or guidance that your church would find helpful then please do get in touch.
Filter:
Template Type
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Governing Document
This essential document sets out the legal structure of your church and how it should operate.
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Complaints
If someone is unhappy with something your church or a member of the church has done, this policy outlines what they should do.
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Data Protection
A policy outlining how a church will look after people's information.
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Employment
We want to honour and care well for those who serve the church in a paid capacity, and we do that best by having clear documentation and agreements.
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Financial Management
How a church can ensure their finances are stewarded well for the gospel.
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Food Safety
A food safety policy can help ensure that everyone is clear about the basic principles of how to keep everyone safe.
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Health & Safety
This policy is needed to set out how you will keep people safe when engaging with your church or in your church building.
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Risk Management
Identifying and managing the possible and probable risks that a church may face is a key part of effective governance for churches.
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Safeguarding
This policy sets out a church’s commitment to protect everyone they work with from harm and outlines how they will do that.
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Conflicts of Interest
Trustees have a legal duty to act in the best interests of the church and must manage any personal interests which might affect their decision making.
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Serious Incident Reporting
All charities are expected to report serious incidents to the Charity Commission, so trustees must identify incidents and respond appropriately.
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Social Media
Churches that use social media platforms need to think through how to manage the associated risks.
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Sexual Harassment
Legislation places a duty on all employers to take reasonable steps to protect their employees from sexual harassment.
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CCTV
Churches who operate a CCTV system should have policy explaining its use and the protection in place.
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Trustees Code of Conduct
It is good practice to be clear what the expectations on trustees are, so agreeing a code of conduct can be very helpful.