Mission Lock
Would your bylaws hold?
Institutions are rarely captured by a single vote. They are captured through their governing documents: a word nobody defined, a doctrine article any simple majority can change, a trust clause nobody read. The book traces the five phases of capture. Every one of them runs through the bylaws.
Mission Lock reads your church’s, Christian school’s, or ministry’s bylaws for the eight provisions below, rates each one, ties it to the capture phase it guards against, and drafts amendment language your board can vote on. It runs on Ask the Chair, William Green’s Robert’s Rules product for boards and churches.
Free to start
Upload your bylaws and get the Mission Lock score free. Members of Rules for Radical Christians get 20% off the full report and amendments on Ask the Chair’s Chair and Board plans.
The eight provisions
1 · Phase 1: Infiltration and Definition Control
The statement of faith governs
The bylaws name the statement of faith as the governing standard for the whole document, and name who has the final say on what it means.
What goes wrong without it: Without it, doctrine becomes one policy among many, and whoever controls the committee decides what the words mean.
2 · Phase 1: Infiltration and Definition Control
Membership is tied to the statement
A member is someone who affirms the statement of faith, and the bylaws say how that is confirmed and how it is lost.
What goes wrong without it: If “member” means anyone who attends, the electorate can be changed before any vote is taken.
3 · Phase 1: Infiltration and Definition Control
Leaders must affirm it
Board members, officers, elders, trustees, and the head of school affirm the statement of faith in writing, every year.
What goes wrong without it: Capture starts in the gateway roles: hiring, committees, and the board that appoints them.
4 · Phase 2: Normalization and Reframing
Defined terms are pinned down
Marriage, sexuality, “member in good standing,” discipline, and “ministry” are defined in the bylaws, not left to custom.
What goes wrong without it: A word nobody defined is a word someone else will define for you, one reasonable step at a time.
5 · Phase 3: Coordinated Pressure
Hiring and facility use rest on the faith
Employment and building-use policies say they serve the religious mission, so the protections the law already recognizes for religious organizations have something to stand on.
What goes wrong without it: Pressure campaigns go after the policy that looks secular: who you hire, who rents the hall.
6 · Phase 4: Polarization and the Crisis Moment
The doctrine articles are locked
Changing the statement of faith, the membership article, or the amendment article itself takes a supermajority, written notice, a waiting period, and a vote of the members, not the board alone.
What goes wrong without it: The crisis moment is engineered so a simple majority at one heated meeting can rewrite what the institution is.
7 · Phase 5: Institutional Capture and Consolidation
Leaving a denomination is possible
There is a workable procedure for leaving a denomination or association, and the bylaws say what happens to property, staff, and members if you do.
What goes wrong without it: Without one, the congregation that holds the faith can be the one that has to walk away from its building.
8 · Phase 5: Institutional Capture and Consolidation
Property and dissolution go to the faithful
The bylaws say where the assets go if the institution dissolves, and you have checked your deeds and denomination for a trust clause.
What goes wrong without it: Consolidation is about property: a trust clause or a vague dissolution article can hand everything to the body that drifted.
Running the meeting
Capture often arrives as procedure: an item kept off the agenda, a vote called before debate, a motion ruled out of order. Ask the Chair answers any Robert’s Rules question in plain English with the exact words to say, and writes the chair’s script for your next meeting. Ask the Chair →
Questions
What is Mission Lock?
A check of your bylaws, built into Ask the Chair, that reads them for the eight provisions institutional capture goes through: the statement of faith as the governing standard, membership, leadership qualifications, defined terms, hiring and facility use, locked doctrine articles, leaving a denomination, and property and dissolution. Each finding is rated, tied to the capture phase it guards against, and comes with amendment language your board can vote on.
Who is it for?
Churches, Christian schools, and ministries: any organization whose bylaws are supposed to keep it faithful to a statement of faith.
What does it cost?
The score is free. The full report and drafted amendments are part of Ask the Chair's paid plans, and members of Rules for Radical Christians get 20% off the Chair and Board plans.
Is this legal advice?
No. Property, trust clauses, and hiring touch state and federal law. Mission Lock shows you what your documents say and drafts language to consider; have an attorney who knows your state and your denomination review any amendment before you adopt it.
What is Ask the Chair?
William Green's Robert's Rules product for boards, councils, and churches: plain-English answers to meeting procedure, word-for-word chair scripts, minutes from a recording, and the Bylaws Health Check. William chairs the Alabama Public Television Foundation and built it for boards like his.
Facing this yourself? Ask. Describe what is happening and get what the book, Scripture, and the law of your state say, with the exact words to use. Your first one is free.
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