I am a member of the church of Christ and my children have started going to an Alliance Missionary church. There is not a church of Christ close to them, and the one that is 20 miles away does not have young people. I don’t want to discourage them, so I told them the main thing is to love God and keep His commandments. Try and live the best Christian life you can.<\/p>\n\t
I sadly shook my head as I read your note. I remember the first years of my marriage. My wife and I drove about 45 miles one way, twice a week to attend a faithful congregation. We told people that our children traveled well in cars because they started life on the road so much. Distance is nothing if you love where you are going. Quite a few people drive further than this to go to work, yet to go to church two or three times a week is such an overwhelming burden.<\/p>\n
Oh, and that poor church has no young people — because the young people that could have been there are going to a denomination instead. Isn’t about time someone started being responsible instead of wanting others to do all the work?<\/p>\n
I know the teachings of the Christian and Missionary Alliance churches. While it is a fairly conservative denomination it is wholly given over to Calvinism. It doesn’t teach the truth about salvation. Yet you don’t want to be “discouraging” so you give token approval to your children following after false doctrine. You tell them that it is important to keep God’s commandments, but you don’t object if they don’t fully obey Him because it is inconvenient to find or start a group in their area which will stand for the truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I am a member of the church of Christ and my children have started going to an Alliance Missionary church. There is not a church of Christ close to them, and the one that is 20 miles away does not have young people. I don’t want to discourage them, so I told them the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[356,300,608],"class_list":["post-14544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-attendance","tag-denominations","tag-excuses"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17152,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-family-wont-go-to-church-because-they-think-people-will-judge-them-for-not-attending-how-can-i-get-them-to-go-with-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":14544,"position":0},"title":"My family won’t go to church because they think people will judge them for not attending. How can I get them to go with me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question to ask you that I do not know how to fully answer.\u00a0 My family members are not convinced that going to church as a family is the best thing for the family. I believe that going to church is important especially as a family, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49116,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-get-my-dad-to-see-that-his-church-isnt-good-enough\/","url_meta":{"origin":14544,"position":1},"title":"How do I get my dad to see that his church isn’t good enough?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a problem I have been dealing with my father, and he simply does not understand. For many years we've been going to this small church. The people are nice. I would describe the church as traditional because it is Baptist. The majority of people who like to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93249,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-can-be-hurt-in-the-church-and-still-raise-faithful-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":14544,"position":2},"title":"You Can Be Hurt in the Church\u2014and Still Raise Faithful Children","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 17, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Brad Harrub, Ph.D. There are few pains more confusing than being wounded by people who wear the name of Christ. Many parents have sat in pews with a knot in their stomach-betrayed by leadership, ignored in suffering, judged unfairly, or damaged by hypocrisy. Some have endured church splits, public\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92746,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-did-not-marry-a-christian\/","url_meta":{"origin":14544,"position":3},"title":"I Did Not Marry a Christian","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Author Unknown Several months ago, an article appeared entitled \"I Married A Christian.\" I read the article with great interest, and it drove home some very sobering thoughts. 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It's just that church is a place I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18106,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-i-need-to-do-to-return-to-a-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":14544,"position":5},"title":"What do I need to do to return to a congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Sir, I have not been attending church services regularly for about two years. I'm a baptized believer and had been attending a church of Christ. My reasons for not going were due to a lot of different things, but these don't excuse my absence. 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