How To Start A Church
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
One of the truly wonderful options available to you as a graduate of the University of Metaphysical Sciences is that you can start a nonprofit organization based on your ministerial license. Starting a church gives you tax breaks and exemptions that you cannot get with any other business, including being able to buy land tax free. Starting a church in your community is an excellent way to begin the networking process in your town and let people know what it is that you do as far as your services, offerings, and products. As a metaphysical counselor, being the facilitator of Church meetings on Sundays gives people a chance to meet you and see what you do, besides creating right fellowship for yourself and others in your town who are like-minded.
To start a church you must first create a corporation by that name, ie: Church of . You do this by contacting the office of the Secretary of State in your particular state. (USA only. If you are overseas, you must seek out procedures for your own country, as we are not familiar with the processes for incorporation or non-profit status in all countries around the world. Most likely, these procedures would be similar to the ones described here.) You can also go directly to the Secretary of State’s office and register your corporation/church there. This is speedier than doing all this through the mail. Bureaucratic mail takes a very long time, at least two to three months. If you go directly to the office it is instantaneous.
As a corporation, you will need three people, yourself included to be your Board of Directors. You will want to be the CEO (chief executive officer) and the other two people will hold the title of CFO (chief financial officer) and Secretary-Treasurer. Make sure you pick two other people besides yourself who have the same vision that you do. This is your core Board of Directors. There is no need to increase the number of Board of Directors unless you decide to later. Keep in mind that as you increase the number on the Board of Directors that some of your ideas could be voted down. Make sure you pick people who think and believe the same way you do. Next, your corporation will need a set of bylaws. Bylaws are your policies on how you handle everything from how you run your meetings to how votes are taken and how salaries are determined. Some states require that you submit your bylaws with your corporation registration and some do not.
All states require your articles of incorporation at the time of registering your corporation. You must check with your own state to see if they have a particular format that they want your articles of incorporation in. Be sure to ask someone at the Secretary of State’s office if there is a format they require, very important!
Once you have your corporate stamp number, which the Secretary of State will put on your articles of incorporation and all papers that are part of your registration, you will want to file your church with the IRS (Internal Revenue Service, (www.irs.gov/). You will want to fill out form number FTB3500 and get it approved first so that you can get a filing number before you can fill out any other forms. Then you will fill out the 1023 and the SS-4 forms. You may also be required to fill out the 872-C depending on what kind of nonprofit organization you are filing for and how you are paying your fees.
With these forms it will be important to also submit examples of your beliefs, a creedo. This can be a short or long list of beliefs, but it will show that you do have a code of ethics that you and your church members live by. Realize that you do not have to be officially registered with the IRS before you can actually have church services. You can have church services without ever having registered a church at all. However if you want to take advantage of tax breaks and these sorts of things, or start a business that is related to your church, you will need to have the official filings done. I suggest you start having your services now and be an active church before you have your filings done. This way you will have some advertisements to submit, some fliers, and other types of written material that you can give to the IRS when you actually do your filing.
I highly recommend that you contact the IRS and speak with someone personally there, even though you may be on hold for quite awhile before you reach a physical person, for there may be changes in the process on any given year. Allow for plenty of time to fill out these forms, especially the 1023, because it is an involved process. It is your presentation to the IRS of what your business ideas, plans, and goals are. Filling these forms out will assist you with solidifying your ideas about your business. Also make sure you are willing to allow up to six months to a year for this process to be finished, for the IRS wheels turn very slowly. This whole process costs about $500, plus or minus.
Do not be surprised if you receive a second request for more information even after you have submitted all these forms. It is quite common for someone from the IRS to ask for more clarification on some of your ideas and goals. Be assured that the IRS is willing to give any church a chance to start, though. In fact, in my conversations with the IRS I discovered that the United States government does not determine what is a religion and what is not a religion. As long as you’re not harming anyone, freedom of religion prevails in the United States.
Realize that some religions have been challenged already, and even the Supreme Court of the United States has been involved in these debates. An organization brought the Wiccan Church to the courts, trying to get the Supreme Court to denounce Wicca as a religion. In the end, the Supreme Court itself decided that Wiccans were free to practice their religion as they saw fit. So be very grateful for your rights to freedom of religion, for these are not common rights in all countries in the world. Freedom of religion is a very precious thing (metaphysics is considered a new emerging a religion). If you state it is a religion, the IRS will give you five years to operate before checking on you again and observing your activities, and still, only your status may be changed, not whether or not what you are practicing is a religion.
Keep very good records and always maintain the integrity and all your business dealings, for you will be audited after your first five years of operation. It is mandatory. At first you will probably not be making a large sum of money, so you will not have to file the 990 every year with the IRS, but it is good to fill it out anyway so that when you are audited you have your records intact and ready to present. Besides, it is a good exercise so that when you do make more money in the future with your church and your services, you will know how to handle this form.