{"id":26160,"date":"2020-09-22T16:08:04","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T21:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=26160"},"modified":"2020-09-22T16:08:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T21:08:04","slug":"ive-been-thinking-about-switching-congregations-but-dont-know-if-it-is-a-good-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ive-been-thinking-about-switching-congregations-but-dont-know-if-it-is-a-good-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"I’ve been thinking about switching congregations but don’t know if it is a good idea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

Hey,<\/p>\n

I have a question.\u00a0I\u2019ve been thinking of switching congregations. My reasons for wanting to leave are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. My wife mentioned to me, she isn\u2019t learning there anymore. I haven’t been learning there for the past year in a half, but I do a lot of studying on my own. I also listen to lots of sound brethren’s preachings. I’m also enrolled in World Video Bible School, so I get tons of learning outside of Sunday\u2019s worship. The preacher at my congregation hardly ever teaches out of the Old Testament. They never teach about things such as marriage, divorce, and remarriage.
    \nTo sum it up, the entire congregation has been on milk for a long <\/b>time and about 95% of the people there are spiritually weak. It\u2019s making the church not grow.<\/li>\n
  2. My second reason for wanting to leave is because the congregation where I attend has still not opened the building for in-person worship because of their fear of COVID-19. I have expressed my concern to the preacher many times, telling him that phone worship is not authorized and it\u2019s not pleasing to God, but he doesn\u2019t listen.<\/li>\n
  3. My last reason I\u2019m thinking of leaving is that I\u2019ve found a church of Christ near my home that is sound. I\u2019ve visited with them for a pretty long time. It seems like a faithful, knowledgeable group of Christians. The preacher also teaches \u201cmeaty\u201d teachings. In the past three months that we have been going here, my wife and I both like it a lot and she tells me she likes it because she actually learns something now.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I do not know what to do because one part of me says, \u201cI think it will get better where I am eventually,\u201d but another part of me says I should leave if I know my wife isn\u2019t learning. Could you please give me some advice?<\/p>\n\t

    Answer:<\/h2>\n

    Typically I discourage church-hopping because people are avoiding problems instead of solving them. For example, if you merely were looking for better teaching, I would encourage you to start teaching classes at the congregation you are attending.<\/p>\n

    However, you list more difficulties with your current congregation. They are avoiding meeting together. That might have been understandable at the start of this problem with the COVID-19 virus when we didn’t know what the world was dealing with, but we are long past that point. The original request from the government was to limit the number of people you contacted so that the hospitals would not be overwhelmed with new patients. That purpose was achieved. What is currently going on is more political in nature and lacks a scientific basis. As Christians, we obey the government (Romans 13:1-7) but not to the point that it causes us to disobey God.<\/p>\n

    You found a congregation that is worshiping as they should. They have biblically accurate teaching and knowledgeable teachers to give a deeper understanding of God’s Word. You are already attending there, so become active members of the church there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Question: Hey, I have a question.\u00a0I\u2019ve been thinking of switching congregations. My reasons for wanting to leave are: My wife mentioned to me, she isn\u2019t learning there anymore. I haven’t been learning there for the past year in a half, but I do a lot of studying on my own. I also listen to lots…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[356,544],"class_list":["post-26160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-attendance","tag-membership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12727,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-does-god-view-switching-congregations\/","url_meta":{"origin":26160,"position":0},"title":"How does God view switching congregations?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning, Mr. Jeffrey! My husband and I have decided to switch our church membership to another local body of believers. God says that He places each member how He sees fit (I Corinthians 12:18), but I cannot find a biblical reference to how God moves people to different\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":31541,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-get-agitated-at-having-baby-dedication-ceremonies-during-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":26160,"position":1},"title":"Is it wrong to get agitated at having baby dedication ceremonies during worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am in search of a church home and have visited several.\u00a0 The last church I joined was more focused on supporting its Christian school than on evangelism, or even Sunday school and joyful singing, and it really bogged me down.\u00a0 That said, when I sense something out 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":20733,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-questions-should-brethren-ask-of-a-man-wanting-to-preach-for-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":26160,"position":2},"title":"What questions should brethren ask of a man wanting to preach for them?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a couple of other men here who fill in with the preaching service\u00a0occasionally and have asked me for suggestions that might help them improve.\u00a0 One of them has expressed an interest in possibly looking for a preaching job.\u00a0 So, I believe a \"preacher training class\" would be\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":40864,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-is-it-permissible-to-change-congregations-locally\/","url_meta":{"origin":26160,"position":3},"title":"When is it permissible to change congregations locally?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Brother, I'll get right to the point with my question, and then some brief context. When is it permissible scripturally for a member and or their family to switch local congregations? The context We live in a town with several [perceived] biblically sound congregations, of which my family\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":26160,"position":4},"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":[]},{"id":52500,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-stay-with-this-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":26160,"position":5},"title":"Should we stay with this congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Having moved about, my wife and I have worshiped with many congregations that follow the New Testament pattern. Currently, we are visiting a congregation that has a part-time minister and one elder. How this came about is murky. As our options are very limited, we have visited for several\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\/26160","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=26160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}