Is it OKfor a congregation to allow members to use the property to grow a garden if they are in need?\u00a0 One example may be a guy who is living in an apartment and has no property. Another may be a family who has a nice lawn and doesn’t want to bring down their property value by putting in a garden. I said the last one was a vanity. But the response was: “So, you’d rather see them lose money on selling their house?”<\/p>\n
I said why don’t other brethren come to our home and grow a garden if you need to. I don’t see how using the property as a garden is right. It is similar to using the meeting house as a place to break a common meal.<\/p>\n\t
If something is purchased with the Lord’s money, then it ought to be used for the Lord’s business. There are limited cases where a congregation is responsible for taking care of widows (I Timothy 5:1-16). If in that care it is deemed expedient to grow food for the widows’ care, then it would be no problem. But to do so simply because someone wants to save money, which both examples come down to being, then such is not the purpose of the church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Is it OKfor a congregation to allow members to use the property to grow a garden if they are in need?\u00a0 One example may be a guy who is living in an apartment and has no property. Another may be a family who has a nice lawn and doesn’t want to bring down their…<\/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":[154,192],"class_list":["post-18755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church-funds","tag-liberalism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":44464,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-churches-have-boards-of-directors\/","url_meta":{"origin":18755,"position":0},"title":"Do churches have boards of directors?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My congregation is considering closing and dispersing due to a continued decrease in attendance and the inability to draw new members or visitors. Now I hear we have to have approval from our \"board of directors\"? Does each church of Christ have a board of directors? Thank you very\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":7861,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-tree-of-life-different-from-the-tree-of-the-knowledge-of-good-and-evil\/","url_meta":{"origin":18755,"position":1},"title":"Was the tree of life different from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please bear with me. I am just recently in the last year come back to studying the Bible, and there is so much I don't understand. I am what many refer to as 'backslider', but am attempting to rectify that. However, there is no one around me to talk\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":40843,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-church-rent-a-part-of-its-property-to-a-phone-company\/","url_meta":{"origin":18755,"position":2},"title":"Can a church rent a part of its property to a phone company?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Sir, A phone company just approached the local congregation where we attend with an offer to install a cell tower on the church's property. They would pay the church a significant amount each month for the ability to use a portion of the property in order to build\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":28900,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-for-a-church-to-be-incorporated\/","url_meta":{"origin":18755,"position":3},"title":"Is it wrong for a church to be incorporated?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If a\u00a0 Christian does not want to attend an incorporated church because he says it's wrong, is it right for him and his wife to worship alone on the Lord's day because he says an incorporated church is in sin, and he cannot find a church that is 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":[]},{"id":4225,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-biblical-to-have-a-board-of-trustee\/","url_meta":{"origin":18755,"position":4},"title":"Is it biblical to have a board of trustees?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it biblical to have a board of trustees? Answer: Governments exist by the authority of God (Romans 13:1-2). So long as the demands of a government do not violate the laws of God, there is every reason for Christians to be obedient to the government under which they\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":19084,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-the-church-pay-for-things-pertaining-to-the-upkeep-of-the-church-building\/","url_meta":{"origin":18755,"position":5},"title":"Can the church pay for things pertaining to the upkeep of the church building?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you think the church can pay for things that pertain to the church building for things such as repairs or the lawn maintenance and work around the grounds to keep it looking presentable and then accommodations such as nursery items (baby bed, rocking chairs, books, maybe even toys,\u00a0etc...),\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18755","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=18755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}