{"id":17446,"date":"2019-12-29T15:31:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-29T21:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=17446"},"modified":"2019-12-30T15:24:12","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T21:24:12","slug":"is-it-wrong-to-date-someone-from-the-church-you-attend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-date-someone-from-the-church-you-attend\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it wrong to date someone from the church you attend?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>I have a question regarding church discipline. I attend a congregation where a brother has dated several sisters in the same congregation.\u00a0 Also, some of them have left this congregation. Should I stay or look for another place of worship? Is this acceptable?<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for your cooperation.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>If I take your question exactly as presented, you did not state that this man did anything wrong. There is nothing wrong with dating. One would hope that fellow Christians would marry (I Peter 3:7), and that would mean they dated prior to marriage.<\/p>\n<p>It seems you are hinting that this man is the reason the women left the church, but you did not so state what caused the women to decide to leave.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Thanks so much for responding.<\/p>\n<p>The brother has been divorced and stated he can&#8217;t marry. so I was concerned that he can&#8217;t remarry. Why is he dating? I also tried to reach out to the women, but no response.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>If a man cannot marry because he is still bound by the covenant he made to his first wife, then you are correct that he has no business dating women. This sort of problem should be addressed by the elders of the congregation or, lacking elders, by the men of the congregation.<\/p>\n<p>While you suspect there that this man caused a problem that drove some women from the church, and you might be correct, but until there is solid evidence the congregation would not be able to do anything about the matter (Matthew 18:15-17). The requirement of multiple witnesses to establish truth remains.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Response:<\/h2>\n<p>Thanks again. I appreciate the website. It is very informative for those who are seeking the truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: I have a question regarding church discipline. I attend a congregation where a brother has dated several sisters in the same congregation.\u00a0 Also, some of them have left this congregation. Should I stay or look for another place of worship? Is this acceptable? Thanks for your cooperation. Answer: If I take your question exactly&hellip;<\/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":[149],"class_list":["post-17446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-dating"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":65196,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-this-elder-step-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":17446,"position":0},"title":"Should this elder step down?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a very difficult situation on our hands. I was hoping to get some advice on this. My husband and I attend the church of Christ and we have two elders at our church. One of them has an adult daughter who left the church. She was married\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55637,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-found-out-there-is-a-lot-of-sexual-misconduct-happening-among-the-leaders-of-the-church-i-attend\/","url_meta":{"origin":17446,"position":1},"title":"I found out there is a lot of sexual misconduct happening among the leaders of the church I attend","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Jeffrey, I hope you're doing well. There is a lot going on in my congregation which is given me cause for concern. My elder brother is cohabiting with a lady who he intends to marry and the lady is not a Christian. My sister told the minister privately\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31472,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-a-woman-be-on-the-committee-to-select-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":17446,"position":2},"title":"Should a woman be on the committee to select elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I attend the church of Christ in a small town. We are looking at appointing elders in our congregation.\u00a0 There is what I feel a potential problem, since we are so small, most of the men who have been elected as potential elders leave very little left to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29397,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-quit-preaching-to-find-a-wife\/","url_meta":{"origin":17446,"position":3},"title":"Should I quit preaching to find a wife?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been a minister now for almost 30 years. My wife left me after nearly 30 years of marriage. However, I need a helpmate. I want to date but all women are scared of dating a preacher. I understand that too. I don't want to cause a \"Black\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92355,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-preach-on-all-saints-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":17446,"position":4},"title":"Is it wrong to preach on All Saints Day?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello brother, I have always been reading many articles on your sites, and it has really helped me as a preacher. My question is this: Is it prohibited in the Scriptures for one to preach during All Saints Day (November 1)? There is a tradition of the unbelievers here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25124,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-woman-be-an-associate-campus-minister\/","url_meta":{"origin":17446,"position":5},"title":"Can a woman be an Associate Campus Minister?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've been attending the church of Christ. I'm fairly new there. It's almost 30 miles away and there is no other acceptable church that I know of. My concern is with their campus ministry. My husband only recently noticed a flyer in the church hallway announcing a woman as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","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\/17446","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=17446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}