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With the start of a new year, many churches need to begin the process of organizing important legal documents, while other churches need to ensure that systems they have set up in the past are still working well. Here are some practical reminders.

Obtain a heavy-duty locking file cabinet, preferably fireproof.  CLA has received many calls from ministries which have lost all their important documents to fire. Insurance policies, mortgages, tax records, tithing records, and attendance records—many of them irreplaceable—have all literally gone up in smoke. Fireproof storage, though a little more expensive, will save the time and expense of replacing records on which a ministry depends. 

It is also important that the file cabinet have a good lock. Store at least one key (or a lock combination) off-site in a secure location. Many records, such as counseling and tithing records, are private and should be protected from one who unintentionally opens the wrong file drawer in search of another document which may not be as private.

Make sure important documents are filed clearly. Ministries can have a wide array of important documents, so the list that follows is designed not to be all-encompassing but to bring to mind what your ministry might need to file in an easily accessible and safe location.

• Contracts for alarm systems

• Contracts for maintenance

• Incident reports for the church and the Christian school

• Insurance documents, including pastor’s life insurance, property insurance, and vehicle insurance

Having legally significant documents is great—but it doesn’t help you if you can’t find them! Due to staff turnover, your filing system should be written down somewhere.

January is a great time to make certain that your filing system is organized—and to be sure there is a written record explaining where things can be found. Tasks like this may seem insignificant, but if you are ever involved in a case, it is unbelievably helpful to have these seemingly small details in order.

Make sure your computer files are securely backed up. You do not want to lose countless documents due to a computer crash! It would be wise to invest in secure cloud backups as well as purchasing sufficient external hard drives to hold complete copies of all data. Be sure the cloud service is backing up regularly, and set a schedule for updating the physical hard drives. Keep one physical hard drive in a fireproof filing cabinet; store the other at a secure off-site location.

Many churches have never taken the time to organize their documents and data as described above, but it is impossible to overstate the importance of having these systems in place and also of regularly updating the information. If a staff member has been assigned this task, the beginning of a new year would be a great time to say something like, “Today, I’d like to set up a time for us to review the church document filing system.” This is an easy way for church leaders to have a current picture of where materials are stored, whether physical or digital. If a staff member becomes overwhelmed with tasks, keeping track of church documents is something that might not be appropriately prioritized.

If you have any questions about your church documents and what the legal requirements for document retention are, please contact our offices. The Christian Law Association is privileged to stand with Bible-preaching churches and Christian ministries. We are happy to do everything possible to keep your ministry legally safe.

In a way, January marks the end of a busy season. The election season is over, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season has become a memory to be treasured. In January, the air is crisp, and we have high hopes for the New Year!

Here at the Christian Law Association, we are filled with energy and excitement as we face the challenges of a new year, but we are also diligently working through cases that are winding their way through the system.

When the political landscape changes in America, it can make it easier or harder to defend the religious liberty of God’s people. But regardless of what happens in the political world, there is always a large group of people who try to hinder the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by filing baseless lawsuits against churches and Christian organizations, people who knowingly push for policies that are clearly illegal, just because they think they can get away with it.

We are eager and excited to continue our pursuit of religious liberty for Bible-preaching churches, religious liberty in the workplace for Christians who face discrimination based solely on their faith, and religious liberty for Christian students who do not forfeit their First Amendment rights when they enter a classroom.

Yet we know our labor is in vain without the blessing of our Lord. We ask that you keep us in your prayers. Whether the nation turns more towards the political right or towards the political left, we still battle in courtrooms in front of judges with lifetime appointments; and these judges represent a wide variety of worldviews. We are in need of constant wisdom as we defend the religious liberty of God’s people.

We wish you are very happy New Year. May 2025 be outstanding in every way for you and yours. And do remember the cases in your prayers. Many of God’s finest servants have heavy hearts as their cases drag through the legal system. It is our goal to pursue legal victory for these people—but we also want to keep them encouraged so they can faithfully serve our Lord during times of trial.

Under U. S. law, those who qualify as volunteers must be pure volunteers indeed! Suppose Jenna wants to volunteer as a teacher for the Christian school operated by her local church. Suppose she is willing to teach full-time and to receive no money whatsoever as wages. Under the law, that is allowed.

On the other hand, suppose that the Christian school principal, grateful for Jenna’s sacrificial work, offers to give her children free tuition to express gratitude for her volunteer spirit. Under the law, accepting free tuition is a form of being paid; and if Jenna does this, she is no longer a volunteer.

By accepting free tuition, Jenna’s status is changed from a volunteer to an employee. For this practice to be legal, she must be subject to all the procedures of a regular employee, including minimum wage and tax withholding requirements.

To be sure, the law is rather complicated in matters like these. If you want to keep your ministry legally protected, contact the Christian Law Association. Our attorneys are happy to walk you through all the information you need to consider to make legally sound decisions.

Many churches livestream their services, which can be a great help to people who are sick, shut in, or are for whatever reason unable to attend church in person. The copyright rules and regulations are a little strange. Essentially, churches may place a copyrighted song on the screen for their worship service; but this built-in permission does not extend to services that are livestreamed. If copyrighted music is livestreamed, permissions, in the form of a license, must be in place.

In order to comply, many churches hire a copyright company to provide a license for them. But holidays can be tricky. Some licenses that are available to churches essentially cover all songs; other licenses are limited to religious songs. During holiday seasons, there may be some church events where a secular song is sung. Whether or not a church has permission to livestream such a song is dependent on its license. During holiday seasons, you want to be sure that your church has the right kind of license to avoid a copyright lawsuit!

We recently became involved in a situation in the Deep South involving a high school instructor who worked in a local public school. This rather large school had a number of student-led clubs, including a chess club, an archery club, and a Bible club. This instructor was the staff supervisor for the Bible club, which met during lunch each Thursday.

Members of the Bible club noticed that announcements had been made over the school’s PA system to advertise meetings of the chess club and the archery club, but when the staff supervisor approached the school office staff about announcing the Bible club meeting, he was told it was not possible for such an announcement to be made.

At first, the Bible club supervisor thought there might have been a mistake, but the more he looked into it, the more he realized that the school was planning to allow the chess and archery clubs to announce their meetings, but not the Bible club. One of the school administrators had the opinion that making such an announcement might offend some non-Christian students and perhaps violate the notion of the separation of church and state. Frankly, this administrator simply did not want to deal with any negative consequences that might be associated with these Bible club announcements.

When the Bible club supervisor contacted the Christian Law Association, our attorneys were able to quickly discern that the school was practicing unlawful religious discrimination against the Bible club. The school could, of course, ban all clubs from operating on its premises. Alternatively, they could continue to allow all clubs to meet on school property, but ban all of these student-led organizations from making announcements over the school’s PA system. What was illegal, of course, was allowing one club to exercise a privilege that was denied another.

In this particular case, our attorneys provided the Bible club supervisor with the information he needed to have respectful, but factually accurate, discussions with his supervisors; and we sent a letter to the appropriate administrator, a letter that clearly explained how the law applied to this situation and what the consequences could potentially be for schools that did not follow the law. In a short amount of time, the situation was resolved, and it seemed to be resolved in a way that left all parties on friendly terms. The members of the Bible club were relieved that they were no longer being treated as second-class citizens, and the announcements that were made over the school PA system did not seem to cause any difficulties.

In many ways, our nation is experiencing turmoil. Some would go so far as to say that the America of fifty years ago is no longer recognizable. Regardless of the profound changes that affect the cultural fabric of our society, it is still the law of the land that religious discrimination may not be practiced at the public school. It is important for God’s people to understand the technicalities of the law and to have great wisdom as they work through these issues. When there are questions and difficult situations, the Christian Law Association is honored to stand with you to ensure that your legally protected religious rights here in the United States remain unhindered.

Churches, Christian schools, and other Christian ministries constantly transport people. Some provide bus transportation to church. Some provide van transportation to activities. Unless we are careful, we can easily let an important recordkeeping requirement slip.

Suppose an accident occurs involving a ministry vehicle. In many, or most, cases, a lawsuit will be filed. If this happens and it can be shown that a ministry did not take careful steps to ensure they were using safe, qualified drivers, a judge or jury could impose severe fines on the ministry.

To begin, every ministry should obtain a copy of the commercial driver’s license (CDL) of every driver who operates a vehicle that requires a CDL. They should also obtain a copy of the driver’s license for every driver that operates a ministry vehicle (even if that vehicle does not require a CDL), and they should obtain a copy of the driver’s license for every driver who uses his own vehicle in service of the ministry. In addition, ministries should obtain a seven-year driving record for each person who drives on behalf of the ministry.

When a ministry can demonstrate that all its drivers have up-to-date licenses and good driving records, that ministry is much less likely to be fined for negligence in the event of an accident. If you have questions specific to your situation, please call our attorneys for advice.

We are thankful to live in a nation that still allows us to share the Gospel message. Yet, we understand that there are reasonable limits to how we express ourselves. For example, no one would think it reasonable to proclaim a message on loudspeakers at three o’clock in the morning in a quiet residential neighborhood. It is important for Christians to understand the nuances of the law in this matter.

The most protected forum for witnessing is known as the public forum. Citizens have virtually guaranteed access to a traditional public forum, which includes public streets, sidewalks, parks, and other places where citizens traditionally gather to exchange ideas. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that “Such use of the streets and public places has, from ancient times, been a part of the privileges, immunities, rights, and liberties of citizens. The privilege of a citizen of the United States to use the streets and parks for communication of views…must not…be abridged or denied.”

While protecting free speech in public forums, the Supreme Court also ruled that free speech must work together with “peace and good order.” First Amendment free speech rights are not considered to be harmed if regulations about time, place, and manner are adopted by appropriate governmental agencies. For example, the Court allows municipalities to disallow public speech after 10:00 P.M., in the middle of a street, or above a certain decibel level.

Limitations on free speech become more difficult to understand when you consider places that are not part of the traditional public forum. For example, do owners of private property have the right to limit who speaks on their property? Can speakers have unlimited access to military bases? Are there restrictions for distributing Gospel tracts in shopping malls?

One faithful lady wanted to distribute tracts at a government-sponsored children’s event, but she was not sure if was permissible. As it turned out in this particular case, the event was sponsored by the government, but it was a public event that allowed all people to share ideas and distribute information.

If you have questions about your right to witness, you may want to read our resource titled Witnessing in Modern America, in which our attorneys spell out the details of the law. And always feel free to contact our offices if you need clarification about this detailed issue. The legal missionaries of the Christian Law Association are privileged to help you exercise your right to witness, and we will continue our work to ensure that the Gospel message can be circulated freely in this great land.

Finding and hiring the right employees is an important and difficult task. Once you have identified personnel that will work well with your ministry, be careful that you don’t miss these important requirements.

• Complete an I-9 form with each new employee. Form I-9 is available from the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The form shows evidence of an employer’s efforts to inspect and verify documentation demonstrating that the new employee is legally permitted to work in the United States. The form does not have to be filed with the government, but the employer is required to keep the form and be able to produce it for inspection at any time. The form must be kept for three years after the date of hire or one year after termination of employment, whichever is later. The USCIS does make unannounced visits to inspect I-9 forms. Employers may be fined up to $1,000 for each employee whose I-9 form is not in order. 

• Have each employee subject to income tax withholding complete Form W-4. The employer retains the W-4 and does not submit it to the Internal Revenue Service unless an employee claims 10 or more withholding allowances or if the employee claims exemption from all withholding even though he is paid $200 or more per week. 

• Report the name, address, and social security number of all newly hired employees, and the name, address, and Federal Employer Identification Number of the employer to the State Directory of New Hires in the state where the employee works. This reporting requirement applies to any employee who is required to receive a W-2 form from the employer. There is no required form that must be completed. The employer may simply send a letter or create a form. The report must be made within twenty (20) days of the date of hire, unless a shorter time frame has been mandated by the State to which the report must be made. The “date of hire” is considered the first day services are performed for wages. The State may impose civil monetary and non-monetary penalties for an employer’s failure to report. Fines generally may not exceed $25 per newly hired employee, but if there is a conspiracy between the employer and the employee not to report, the penalty may be increased to $500 per newly-hired employee. 

There are, indeed, many other requirements for a payroll program to be set up in a legally appropriate way. The items listed above, however, are commonly overlooked. In order to ensure full legal compliance, many Christian ministries hire outside companies to help handle the details of the payroll.

If you have questions about ensuring that your payroll is legally compliant, please contact the Christian Law Association right away.

Most people understand that ordained members of the clergy may opt out of Social Security, and if they do so, they simply don’t have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes. For many ministers, frankly, that is a significant savings. If a minister is considered self-employed, the Social Security tax alone would be 12.4% on up to $168,600 of net earnings.

Many ordained ministers think, “Great! I’ll opt out, and I’ll save lots of money.” And while opting out is an excellent choice in some situations, this is a decision that deserves careful attention before making that change.

To opt out of Social Security, ordained ministers must sign Form 4361 “Application for Exemption from Self-Employment Tax for Use by Ministers, Members of Religious Orders and Christian Science Practitioners.” The form does not say, “If you are a minister and prefer not to pay these taxes, sign here.” If you read the form carefully, it says that you are conscientiously opposed or opposed because of your religious principles to “the acceptance…of any public insurance that makes payments in the event of death, disability, old age, or retirement; or that makes payments toward the cost of, or provides services for, medicare” in exchange for services you perform as a minister. In other words, signing Form 4361 means that, as a minister, you oppose receiving Social Security or Medicare benefits for your ministerial work.

Of course, there are different beliefs among ordained ministers. Some truly do believe that serving as a pastor should not allow them to receive any Social Security benefits when they retire. Others believe differently. Whatever the case, we definitely recommend that ministers should understand the full legal picture before they make their decision.

In many cases, ministers make decisions like this when they are quite young, when they have a hard time even imagining retirement. And though the government has, on certain occasions, allowed ministers to opt back in to Social Security, you cannot count on this being allowed should you change your mind.

Because of the complexity of this issue, we highly recommend that you contact the Christian Law Association before finalizing any such decision. Our experienced legal team is extremely familiar with all of the issues pertaining to this, and we have seen firsthand how this works for ministers through the years. It would be our privilege to assist you.

In recent days, our attorneys have fielded several questions about IRS Publication 78. Many churches wonder if there is a legal requirement for their organization to appear on that list. Publication 78 is a formal list of organizations that have formally filed with the IRS and have received a determination letter which states they are, indeed, tax-exempt organizations.

There is no legal requirement for churches to formally register for 501(c)(3) status. If they never do so, they have not broken any law or missed any mandatory requirement. On the other hand, there are sometimes advantages to appearing in Publication 78. Some donors feel more comfortable financially supporting a church that has received a determination letter. And if your church has any interest in seeking foundation grants or participating in some kind of matching fund program offered by some corporations, these organizations almost always limit their scope of activity to churches that appear on Publication 78.