I felt compelled to write and thank you and any others that may be contributing material to your website.\u00a0 Your sermon outlines and lessons have been very helpful to me these last several months.\u00a0 You see, my brother-in-law, who preached for the small congregation that meets here passed away recently, and as the congregation could not afford to hire anyone new, I have taken over those duties.\u00a0 I have no formal (or informal) training and do not possess the knowledge that I imagine most who preach do, so I use the Internet as a research tool to put my lessons together.\u00a0 Of course, I don’t rely on this exclusively – it’s just a tool. Most of my research is done simply by reading the Bible and trying to bring together all the pertinent passages and thoughts on a particular subject in a way that will help the congregation understand God’s will for us.\u00a0 My use of the Internet arises mostly when I come upon a passage or subject that I find to be difficult, as Peter said of Paul’s arguments, and it’s interesting that almost every time I do a Google search (with “church of Christ” as the modifier) I am led to your site.\u00a0 I usually read between 5 and 10 sermons or articles on these “difficult” topics until it begins to coalesce within my mind, and invariably I eventually end up with your thoughtful remarks being the most comprehensible and understandable of the bunch.\u00a0 Many times you have helped me to glean what I feel to be the most important aspect of a topic or the true meaning of a verse.\u00a0 So, this is really just an email of thanks and of hoping that the Lord will continue to bless you in all of your efforts on His behalf.<\/p>\n
Thanks again, brother.<\/p>\n\t
Thank you very much for your encouragement. I’m sorry about your loss. I’ve noticed one of the frequent motivators that get people doing more is “there’s no one else.” And having worked with small congregations all my life, I fully understand the struggles you face. I’m so glad the brethren there has someone willing to step in and do the best that he can.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I felt compelled to write and thank you and any others that may be contributing material to your website.\u00a0 Your sermon outlines and lessons have been very helpful to me these last several months.\u00a0 You see, my brother-in-law, who preached for the small congregation that meets here passed away recently, and as the congregation…<\/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":[127,536,451],"class_list":["post-27663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-about-this-site","tag-preaching","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61810,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-should-credit-be-given-when-using-someone-elses-material\/","url_meta":{"origin":27663,"position":0},"title":"When should credit be given when using someone else’s material?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Brother Hamilton, I first want to tell you how much I appreciate all of your efforts to serve God and proclaim His word. Although we have never met, your postings and sermon outlines have assisted me in my studies and in my efforts to teach others for several years.\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":43750,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-website-has-been-a-tremendous-help-to-my-personal-life-and-to-the-congregation-here\/","url_meta":{"origin":27663,"position":1},"title":"Your website has been a tremendous help to my personal life and to the congregation here","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I wish to express my utmost gratitude to you. Your publication on your website has so far been of tremendous help to my personal life and the congregation. I had to take charge of lessons due to the ill health of the minister here for almost a year now.\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":27663,"position":2},"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":56849,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-want-to-apologize-for-using-your-lessons-without-giving-credit\/","url_meta":{"origin":27663,"position":3},"title":"I want to apologize for using your lessons without giving credit","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning, I have used some of your sermon outlines and it was pointed out to me that I was not giving the authors of the sermons credit. I sometimes tweak them and sometimes have just followed the outline. I have been accused of plagiarism for doing this. 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":70562,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-eldership-censor-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":27663,"position":4},"title":"Can eldership censor preaching?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I understand elders make decisions to run the day-to-day operations of the congregation. If they cannot show a scriptural reason for not allowing a male member to preach, can they prohibit him from preaching? While it can always be said, \"Not enough knowledge,\" how does that not become\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":27663,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27663","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=27663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}