I can’t get remarried due to an unscriptural divorce. How am I able to help the congregation that I worship with, being that I am a divorced male? Also, if I give to the Lord as I have been prospered, can I take the extra money that I acquire and give to missionaries, needy saints, etc. of my choosing or do I need to put it all in the collection plate?<\/p>\n\t
You can and should do the same things any other single male Christian in your congregation does. The only roles your situation blocks you from doing are those of deacon and elder. The rest is wide open. We have several divorced people in this congregation and they are assets to the group.<\/p>\n
In regards to your giving, Peter told Ananias concerning his money, “While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control?<\/em>” (Acts 5:4). A person can do as they wish with the funds God has blessed them with.<\/p>\n The one mistake, however, that I see some people make is assuming that if they give money to other religious activities, that it somehow relieves them of their obligation to support the work of their local congregation. The command, “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper<\/em>” (I Corinthians 16:2) still applies. In giving, Paul also stated, “For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened; but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack–that there may be equality. As it is written, ‘He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack’<\/em>” (II Corinthians 8:13-15).<\/p>\n So purpose in your heart what you will give to the work of the Lord in your area, and when you find yourself with excess further the work of the Lord by helping the work in other areas as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I can’t get remarried due to an unscriptural divorce. How am I able to help the congregation that I worship with, being that I am a divorced male? Also, if I give to the Lord as I have been prospered, can I take the extra money that I acquire and give to missionaries, needy…<\/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_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[157,159],"class_list":["post-15143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-contributions","tag-giving"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9622,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-giving-to-the-church-optional\/","url_meta":{"origin":15143,"position":0},"title":"Is giving to the church optional?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: One of our members mentioned that he was not contributing monetarily to help support the local work. Upon hearing him make that statement I informed him that he was wrong, that his first responsibility is to help support the local work. As an individual, if he wanted to help\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":92382,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-should-be-done-about-contributions-while-traveling\/","url_meta":{"origin":15143,"position":1},"title":"What should be done about contributions while traveling?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello preacher, Our congregation has recently been studying Christian giving, especially from I Corinthians 16. We understand that if a member misses a Sunday service, they should try to make up their contribution the following week. A question has come up: If a brother or sister misses service because\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":92681,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-children-be-bringing-food-donations-to-the-front-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":15143,"position":2},"title":"Should children be bringing food donations to the front of the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am hoping you can help us with some insight into a situation happening in our local body. During the worship service, during the time of offering, the children of the congregation are invited to come up and donate food items to the church's pantry. Many members of\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":47143,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-should-we-do-since-we-learned-the-elders-are-misspending-the-lords-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":15143,"position":3},"title":"What should we do since we learned the elders are misspending the Lord’s money?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! I have read and searched through your question and answer section to make sure this question hasn't been asked before, so I hope it has not. My husband is a preacher for the church for many years. Recently, he has learned certain information in regard to how our\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":3821,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-liberty-in-how-we-give\/","url_meta":{"origin":15143,"position":4},"title":"Is there liberty in how we give?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question concerning worship. Is there liberty when it comes to some parts of worship? For example when it comes to giving, does one have to give during worship service or can someone give any time just long as it\u2019s on a Sunday. Can a congregation decide\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":41757,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-give-if-im-a-student-and-not-making-any-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":15143,"position":5},"title":"How do I give if I’m a student and not making any money?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good evening, I attend graduate school. I just came across your website when I did a Google search about the collection if you're unemployed. I wanted to ask a question based on the response that was given. I used to be employed last year, but now I am not.\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":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}