Changing From a Charter Church to Covenant Church in 2025
A letter to members of New Life Church from Pastors Matt & Heidi
Dear New Life Church Members:
We are in an exciting season here and we want to give you some important information regarding a significant change in the Foursquare Church (our denomination) that affects New Life Church.
While we and the staff have been dreaming about the ways New Life Church can better serve and reach our community, we asked, “What if we had a community center with ESL classes, a pre-school, open gym hours, tutoring clubs, parenting classes? What if we had a ministry like The Dream Center, hosting office space for other non-profits or church plants? What if we had sports camps, summer camps, and hosted outreach teams in our community? Can we start a secondary non-profit under New Life Church that could receive grants to do these things?”
When we approached the Denomination about these ideas, the answer was, “You will need to make a change from being a Charter Church to a Covenant Church in order to make these things happen.”
This input got us started on a journey of working with the Foursquare Denomination to learn, understand, and determine if it is in the best interest of New Life Church to move from being a Charter Church to a Covenant Church.
“Charter” vs. “Covenant” Churches
The Foursquare denomination is based in California, with all properties being held by one corporation, under one tax identifier. Until 2016, all Foursquare Churches were designated as “Charter Churches”, with the denomination owning all the local property.
In 2016, the Denomination created an option for local churches to own and manage their own property. These churches were designated as “Covenant Churches”. Today, Foursquare is encouraging all established churches to become “Covenant Churches”. There are many reasons for this:
It allows churches to do banking more easily as many banks have “good neighbor” laws where they cannot do business with churches who are incorporated in another state.
Many churches who have refinanced have been forced to move their legal designation from Charter to Covenant in order to get the best interest rate.
All new Foursquare Churches, since 2016, are Covenant Churches and it is the only option for new churches.
Covenant Churches have greater flexibility with property management and they can start secondary non-profits such as schools, community centers, coffee shops, etc. as a way to serve and impact their community.
The Church Council at New Life came to the unanimous decision that it is time to make this change.
Moving from a Charter Church to a Covenant Church allows us to:
Register the corporation in the state of Washington.
Broadens our banking choices.
Gain access to better interest rate options.
Rent and purchase property with greater flexibility.
Have the opportunity to start ministries that would not be allowed under the California corporation.
Remain fully a Foursquare Church in every way, including bylaws, doctrine, leadership, and expectations, obligations and benefits
We would like to make this change primarily for missional purposes, and secondarily because of future business purposes. This change is supported by the President of the Foursquare Church (Randy Remmington), our District Supervisor (Steve Mickel), and the Foursquare Board of Directors.
FAQs
Why are you doing this?
We are doing this for missional purposes, and secondly for future business purposes.
Are covenant churches really still Foursquare?
Absolutely. We will have the same doctrine, leadership, bylaws, benefits, accountability and support system. This is specifically a “legal designation” change, allowed by Foursquare, to benefit the church.
What about our property?
The properties will move to New Life Church, becoming an asset of our local congregation.
Foursquare has a revisionary clause where the denomination can step in and take the title back if a church tries to leave the denomination.
What to do now?
Pray. Read the materials. Ask questions. Attend the meeting on Feb. 16, following the Leadership Training in the chapel. Our District Administrator and church council members will be there to answer your questions.
Next Steps
Church council approval: Complete
Denominational approval: Our District and National Leadership are encouraging us to make this change. (a majority of the churches will do this during the next couple of years due to banking laws).
Informative meeting: Sunday, Feb. 16 at 1:00 PM in the chapel, following the Leadership Training.
Membership vote, with a ¾ (super majority), to say yes, rather than no, at the Ministry celebration on Feb. 25.
Move forward with the process during 2025.
Thank you for listening and praying. The links below contain greater detailed information from the Foursquare Church if you are interested in learning more.
We believe the Lord is positioning New Life for great things in the future, and this part of laying that foundation together.
To learn more, please take time to read through this information.
Questions? Feel free to email us: