Churches and church leaders increasingly find themselves locked in court battles and mounting conflict over legal struggles. Among the reasons for this are: • A shifting societal landscape, and redefinition and departure from the scriptural view of marriage and human sexuality; • Failure to provide safe harbors by adopting carefully drawn organizational documents; • Neglecting to examine internal governing structures and not building in protections for clergy, church leaders, staff, and church members; • Not seeking experienced legal guidance before making key decisions or when threatened by either internal conflicts or interaction with government agencies. Now more than ever, churches need sound legal advice to avoid costly entanglements that might divert them from their mission and purpose. This book is a must read for anyone involved in church leadership, church planting, or pastoring.
Author Larry L. Crain is a Nashville attorney who for more than forty years has represented churches nationwide across a wide spectrum of legal and constitutional issues. A Call to Order shares from his personal experiences and courtroom battles to protect and preserve the religious liberty of churches. The sacrifices borne by many of these churches could have been minimized or avoided altogether with proactive legal advice and planning at the front end. This led Crain to form Church Law Institute and served as the impetus for this book.
