Your church’s bylaws, constitution, and other policies should do more than meet legal requirements—they should reflect and reinforce your church’s identity. When thoughtfully crafted, these documents articulate your church’s mission, guide daily operations, and ensure your biblical beliefs are woven throughout every aspect of your ministry.Too often, churches treat these documents as routine paperwork, missing the opportunity to make them an expression of their faith. But when your documents clearly state what your church believes and how those beliefs shape its ministry, they provide a stronger foundation for your religious liberty.

How CMA Can Help:

Through our Religious Liberty Assessment, churches can submit their governing documents for legal review. Our attorneys analyze these materials to ensure they align with your church’s deeply held beliefs and provide expert recommendations for strengthening the legal foundation of your church’s religious liberty.

Hiring staff who share your church’s faith and values is vital to fulfilling your mission. Your team isn’t just filling roles—they’re actively shaping the spiritual life of your church.

Churches have First Amendment and statutory rights to make employment decisions based on their religious beliefs. Churches should develop religious employment practices consistent with those rights. A well-defined Christian philosophy of employment, supported by carefully crafted job descriptions and policies, provides a strong legal and theological foundation—allowing your church to remain faithful in both its calling and its operations.

How CMA Can Help:

We provide guidance on structuring employment documents, handbooks, and job descriptions to reflect your church’s mission and protect its legal right to make employment decisions based on religious beliefs.

Case Study: Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

Michigan's reinterpretation of its non-discrimination laws threatens to force Sacred Heart Academy to hire faculty and staff who lead lives in direct opposition to the Catholic faith, speak messages that violate Church doctrine, and refrain from articulating Catholic beliefs in teaching its students. We’re defending the ministry’s right to operate in accordance with its religious beliefs.

Some states are using health insurance mandates to force churches to cover abortions, gender-transition procedures, and other services that violate biblical convictions. Without careful planning, churches may unknowingly provide coverage that conflicts with their beliefs.

How CMA Can Help:

We can help you determine if your health insurance plans cover procedures or medications that conflict with your biblical convictions and, if necessary, potentially pursue legal relief.

Case Study: Cedar Park Assembly of God of Kirkland

A Washington state law forces churches and ministries to cover elective abortions in their health insurance plans. As a result of the state’s mandate, Cedar Park Church’s insurance carrier inserted abortion coverage, including surgical abortion coverage, directly into the church’s health plan, even though this goes directly against the church’s beliefs. With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, Cedar Park is standing up in the courtroom for its belief in the sanctity of life.

Churches are sometimes excluded from public benefit programs simply because they are religious, or because participation requires compromising their religious beliefs. However, this could violate a church’s constitutional rights.

How CMA Can Help:

We provide guidance to help your church evaluate and navigate access to public benefits, ensuring that its religious freedom is protected in the process.

Case Study: Bethel ministries

Maryland officials revoked a church-run school’s eligibility to participate in a voucher program to benefit low-income students and demanded the school pay back thousands of dollars for previous participation in the program. Although the school fully complied with the program’s requirements, state officials disqualified Bethel from participating in the program after reading Bethel’s Christian beliefs about marriage and sexuality.

Churches have the freedom to use their buildings in ways that reflect their faith, but allowing outside groups to use their spaces requires careful stewardship. How do they ensure facility use remains aligned with their beliefs? Without a clear facility use policy, churches may struggle to maintain consistency between their religious beliefs and the use of their property.

A well-crafted policy articulates the religious nature of your church building and sets boundaries for appropriate use. Without it, your church risks confusion, disputes, or even legal challenges when facility use conflicts with its beliefs.

How CMA Can Help:

We can assist you in creating a facility use policy that stewards your property consistent with your religious mission and beliefs.