by Bill Hall<\/p>\n
There are two ways to keep members of the church \u201cfaithful.\u201d The first way is to be sure everyone is involved. Have a project for each member, and make sure that he feels important in his role. Praise him for the good job he is doing. Make him feel needed; make him feel that the well being of the whole congregation rests firmly on his shoulders. That will keep him \u201cfaithful.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Faithful-300x203.jpg\")
There are two problems with this method. In the first place, it encourages the creation of projects that are not remotely related to the work of the local church. One member plays on the church ball team; another member leads the Boy Scout troop; another is an active member of the \u201cDorcas Society\u201d; another plans the program for the men\u2019s luncheon. Everybody is busy all right, but in activities that are not authorized in the New Testament.<\/p>\n
In the second place, members are often given roles for which they are not qualified. A lady is chosen to teach a class not because she is qualified, but because she needs to be involved. A man is appointed a deacon to help him to be \u201cfaithful.\u201d Another man is appointed to serve the Lord\u2019s Supper for a month in order to encourage him to be present each Sunday that month. This method thus places \u201cthe cart before the horse,\u201d for no one should ever be assigned any work in the Lord\u2019s service who is not already faithful and qualified for the work to be done (II Timothy 2:2).<\/p>\n
The second way to keep people faithful is to develop within them a genuine love for the Lord. When people love the Lord, they will be faithful, and it won\u2019t take some kind of \u201cspecial\u201d project to keep them faithful. They will also be involved: in worship, in study, in godly living, in sharing the gospel with a friend, in helping the needy. I have known literally hundreds of Christians who have never in their lives been appointed to any special work, but whose love for the Lord alone keeps them faithful. There is no superficial faithfulness on the part of these; theirs is a faithfulness that is real.<\/p>\n
Special responsibilities are fine for those who are qualified, but the man who requires some special duty to be faithful has never learned what true faithfulness is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Bill Hall There are two ways to keep members of the church \u201cfaithful.\u201d The first way is to be sure everyone is involved. Have a project for each member, and make sure that he feels important in his role. Praise him for the good job he is doing. Make him feel needed; make him…<\/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":[27],"tags":[356,544],"class_list":["post-25079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-attendance","tag-membership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42067,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-discipline-be-done-when-there-is-only-one-faithful-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":25079,"position":0},"title":"How can discipline be done when there is only one faithful man?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am a part-time minister of a small congregation of Christians made up mostly of female members. The few male members have dwindled down to three in number due to members relocating and deaths. Currently, the two other male members are unable to take part in the worship\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":51443,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-allow-our-child-to-visit-his-grandparents-who-have-left-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":25079,"position":1},"title":"Do we allow our child to visit his grandparents who have left the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My wife and I have a child that we want to grow to be a faithful member of the Lord's church.\u00a0 His grandparents were once in the Lord's church but left and now attend a Pentecostal church.\u00a0 Is it wrong for us to keep him from his grandparents 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":92501,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-person-be-a-member-of-two-different-congregations\/","url_meta":{"origin":25079,"position":2},"title":"Can a person be a member of two different congregations?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a brother who used to worship with us, but eventually he took the gospel to his village, with the help of the congregation where we both worship. Worship services started in his village, with most members being his immediate family. However, he lives in our area 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":42661,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-god-condemn-every-member-of-the-church-whose-candlestick-was-removed\/","url_meta":{"origin":25079,"position":3},"title":"Would God condemn every member of the church whose candlestick was removed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Brother Hamilton, Is there a point in time when a church has become so disobedient to the commands of the Lord they are considered \"apostate\" and rejected by God? And would this mean that all members in that church are condemned, even though they may not even believe\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":86538,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-right-to-dismiss-a-preacher-because-he-married-a-non-christian\/","url_meta":{"origin":25079,"position":4},"title":"Is it right to dismiss a preacher because he married a non-Christian?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, First, thank you for all you do to answer these difficult questions. They have helped me a lot on my Christian journey. My question concerns something that happened very recently at my congregation; our youth group had two ministers helping and supporting all the activities (spiritual and recreational),\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":66857,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-one-congregation-withdraw-from-another-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":25079,"position":5},"title":"Can one congregation withdraw from another congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can a church withdraw from Christians who are not members of the local congregation? 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mark those who cause division and hindrances -\u00a0Romans 16:17 2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Philippians 3:17\u00a0- Mark those who are good examples 3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Galatians 5:15\u00a0- Don't bite and devour each other. C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Can a church withdraw from another church? Hey Brother Hamilton!\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\/25079","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=25079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}