Process for updating our constitution
At Benoni Baptist Church, we are committed to aligning our church governance with biblical principles and our current practice. Over time, as our church has grown and developed, some areas of our constitution no longer reflect how we function in reality.
To address this, the church has approved the formation of a constitution committee, consisting of our elders, together with Ian Austin (a church member with constitutional experience), and Adrian Pearson (a church membership with legal experience). This team will work section by section to revise the constitution, ensuring it is both faithful to Scripture and practical for our church today.
How the process will work
Drafting and review: The constitution committee will carefully revise each section.
Executive approval: The revised sections will be presented to the executive (comprised of the elders and the deacons) for discussion and approval.
Church engagement: Once approved by the executive, each section will be presented to the church for a three-month period of review and discussion. During this time, there will be teaching from the pulpit, distributed literature, and opportunities for engagement.
Final approval: After due consideration, the sections will be tabled and voted on at a later general meeting.
Baptist Union submission: We will inform the Baptist Union of Southern Africa of any changes we make to our constitution.
Revisions to the constitution
Rev 1 Typed out from a hard copy found amongst the files in the office. Uploaded to the server on 27 February 2025.
Rev 2 Recognising that Rev 1 failed to incorporate amendments which had been accepted by the church related to financial reporting, and that the numbering of Rev 1 did not match the original document, and some minor typing errors had crept into the text, when a digital version of the constitution was submitted to the church office, a comparison was done, and corrections in line with the original intent accepted. Uploaded to the server on 19 September 2025.
Rev 3 Every effort has been taken to restore the document to the version accepted 26 February 2013. The changes to the deacon’s section of the constitution accepted on 23 November 2025 have been incorporated.
