The Tennessee Baptist Convention has recently produced a booklet on the subject of church incorporation which is an excellent reference. It makes many of the same points. When this happens, every member of an unincorporated church is potentially liable - even if they had nothing to do with the incident that caused the lawsuit in the first place. If a court rules against the church, and the church is not incorporated, each church member is responsible before the law for paying the judgment. Most church members assume that only church funds or property can be taken to pay a legal judgment, but that is not the case if the church is unincorporated.
Individual members can lose their personal assets or property.
Incorporation shields church members bank accounts and assets and will permit only church assets to be used to pay a court judgment. Typically, we can prepare a charter of incorporation and have it on its way back to the church for signing within 24 hours of receiving the information needed - sometimes the same day. The only delay over which we have no control comes with the filing with the Tennessee Secretary of State, but usually they respond within two weeks of our filing the charter with them. Yes, we do church incorporations frequently by e-mail and this speeds the process up considerably. This service is included in the fee we charge for those churches who want a set of model bylaws.