I attend a small church of Christ.\u00a0We have no elders or deacons.\u00a0We\u00a0pay a man to lead singing, which obviously is wrong.\u00a0What should I do?\u00a0 Will this cause him to lose his salvation?\u00a0Will I lose mine if I continue to worship there?\u00a0He is the only one among the men capable of leading singing.<\/p>\n\t
The Bible speaks of paying preachers (I Corinthians 9:14), elders (I Timothy 5:17), and teachers (Galatians 6:6); though it could be argued in the latter case that the teachers in mind are the preachers and elders. The problem, as you noted, is that there is no authority for paying someone to lead singing, lead prayers, or serve the Lord’s Supper. Without such authority, the congregation is going beyond the bounds of what God allowed (I Corinthians 4:6).<\/p>\n
Since we are told, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear<\/em>” (I Peter 3:15), ask the men in as kind and gentle of a way as you can upon what passage do they conclude that it is permissible to pay a man to lead singing. If they are unable to explain their actions from God’s word, then ask them why they are doing something without authority (Colossians 3:17). Based on their answers, you might have to decide to find a more faithful congregation with whom to worship.<\/p>\n The problem with remaining with a group that does not respect the authority of God is that eventually, it will begin to color your own view of how things ought to be (I Corinthians 15:33).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I attend a small church of Christ.\u00a0We have no elders or deacons.\u00a0We\u00a0pay a man to lead singing, which obviously is wrong.\u00a0What should I do?\u00a0 Will this cause him to lose his salvation?\u00a0Will I lose mine if I continue to worship there?\u00a0He is the only one among the men capable of leading singing. Answer: 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":[78],"class_list":["post-19809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-authority"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17133,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-church-choose-men-to-lead-when-there-are-no-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":19809,"position":0},"title":"Can a church choose men to lead when there are no elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When there are no elders in a congregation and the church chooses certain men to lead, is this scriptural? Answer: I probably would need more information to answer your question. Much depends on what you mean by \"lead.\" During worship service, there are men who lead various parts 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":25118,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-elders-responsible-for-the-employment-of-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":19809,"position":1},"title":"Are elders responsible for the employment of preachers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I enjoyed and appreciated your article on\u00a0the work of the evangelist.\u00a0 I find it quite different from many by what you might consider institutional churches of Christ. I am concerned about the final paragraph on the selection of the minister.\u00a0 As I understand first-century history,\u00a0 many preachers were involved\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":28918,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-is-in-charge-the-preacher-or-the-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":19809,"position":2},"title":"Who is in charge, the preacher or the elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Jeff, I'm forced to ask this question: between the ministers and the elders, who is in charge of a local congregation? Where that I am, there is a serious power tussle between the two. The ministers say, since they teach the men to become elders and also ordain\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":6775,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-abuses-prove-that-preachers-are-being-overused-in-congregations\/","url_meta":{"origin":19809,"position":3},"title":"Do abuses prove that preachers are being overused in congregations?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I suppose my reasoning for my concerns with\u00a0the article on preachers\u00a0is rooted in other issues.\u00a0 I see so much abuse of the preacher position in the churches of Christ, in general.\u00a0 We are expecting these men to do everything while many members feel their role is to put their\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":68309,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-arent-the-elders-helping-me-to-learn-to-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":19809,"position":4},"title":"Why aren’t the elders helping me to learn to preach?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I hope this email finds you doing well. I have a question. I finally got to preach and teach for a month in another congregation. I asked the elders in my church to attend one day and give me pointers. One finally attended, but all the elders said that\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":29235,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-organization-of-the-church-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":19809,"position":5},"title":"The Organization of the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Hebrews 8:1-5 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We give God glory when we teach His doctrine and execute it accordingly - I Peter 4:11 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Thus we are to follow the pattern set for us - Philippians 3:17 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Warnings abound not to change the message - Galatians 1:6-10 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Any change would give glory to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19809","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=19809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}