As the Session processes through decisions, it is important and helpful to keep several things in mind:
1. The Session should always resist doing Commission work. When a question or proposal comes up that relates to one Commission of the Session, the Session that is on its toes will quickly refer the matter to the appropriate Commission and move onto the next item of business. The Commission then studies the matter and comes back to the Session saying it has dealt with the matter, or is prepared to make a recommendation to the Session. When the Session begins to discuss a matter that belongs to a Commission, then the Session is caught doing Commission work and the Session will get bogged down.
There is a guiding distinction between the work of the Commission and the work of the Session. Generally, the Session creates and monitors basic, overall church policy and avoids the 'nitty-gritty.' The details and the actions are left to the commissions of the Session. The Chairperson of every commission should come to the Session with reports and recommendations. When Chairpersons ask a Session, "What do you think we should do about 'this or that,' that Chairperson is forcing the Session to do his or her Commission work. An exception to this is when a Commission is dealing with an issue that has the potential to affect the peace and unity of the church and the Chairperson of the Commission desires Session input.
2. The Pastor is a member of the Session -- on an equal basis with the other members of the Session. The Senior Pastor moderates the meetings of the Session, but otherwise he or she is an Elder among Elders on the Session. The Session is not the 'boss' of any of its individual members, including the pastors. The Session has every right -- and the responsibility to ask the pastors regarding their work and the state of the church and its ministry and to offer suggestions for improvement. Nevertheless the Session is not in a position of telling the Pastors what they must or must not do. The 'boss' of the Pastor is the Presbytery.
3. A meeting can move more smoothly if each subject and each discussion begins with a motion rather than ends with a motion.
4. We encourage elders to enter the discussion at Session meetings. The congregation elected you to represent it which you cannot do if you remain silent. Your silence is deceptive if you say things after the Session meeting that should have been said at the Session meeting. The truth spoken in the parking lot after the meeting is better spoken in the meeting itself.
If you are silent on any vote, your vote automatically goes to the winning side. For example, if 12 people are present for a meeting and the vote is eight 'for' and there are no votes 'against' the motion, then the vote is a unanimous vote in favor--although four members were silent. The only way a member can actually refrain from voting is to speak up to say, "I wish to abstain on this vote." If you wish your abstention to be noted you must say, “I wish to abstain on this vote, and I wish for my abstention to be noted.” We will record you, with your name, in the minutes of the meeting as abstaining. However, your request to abstain must come before the Moderator has declared the results of the vote. If the Moderator has said, "motion passes," then it is too late to abstain. This is a Roberts Rules device to recognize that people who are to help decide, should not and cannot avoid their responsibility by simply remaining silent.
5. It is always inappropriate to announce to the congregation members the identity of people who voted for or against motions at the Session meetings--or to report who said what at Session meetings. Once the Session decides any issue it makes no difference who made a motion, or who said what in the debate, or who voted one way or another. Once we take the action, it becomes the action of the whole Session, even if you voted against it. If you believe that the session ever acts irresponsibly, you are not to lodge a complaint with the congregation or any of its members. The proper place for an elder to lodge any complaint is to the session itself or to the presbytery.
(These guidelines for session meetings were adopted as operation principles by the session at Manasquan Presbyterian Church on the Jersey Shore)