{"id":29046,"date":"2011-09-20T21:53:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T02:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=29046"},"modified":"2020-12-26T22:02:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T04:02:27","slug":"what-if-you-feel-that-a-particular-church-is-not-suitable-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-you-feel-that-a-particular-church-is-not-suitable-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"What if you feel that a particular church is not suitable for you?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>What are the suggestions if one cannot afford monetarily to attend church, or feels that a particular church is not suitable for him? If he does private bible study, is this enough? Does he have to go through the baptism ceremony?<\/p>\n<p>If a Christian continues to study other religions and philosophies, is this against Bible teachings?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>You are asserting that personal convenience is more important than following God&#8217;s command: &#8220;<em>And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching<\/em>&#8221; (Hebrews 10:24-25).<\/p>\n\n<p>In asking about baptism, you are saying &#8220;Do I have to?&#8221; to something God commanded. Why is there a reluctance to obey God? See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-spiritual-significance-of-baptism\/\">The Spiritual Significance of Baptism<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: What are the suggestions if one cannot afford monetarily to attend church, or feels that a particular church is not suitable for him? If he does private bible study, is this enough? Does he have to go through the baptism ceremony? If a Christian continues to study other religions and philosophies, is this against&hellip;<\/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":[356,52,448,1277,544],"class_list":["post-29046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-attendance","tag-baptism","tag-church","tag-denominationalism","tag-membership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92369,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-a-congregation-deny-someone-who-desires-to-be-baptized-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":29046,"position":0},"title":"Should a congregation deny someone who desires to be baptized again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day Jeff, I hope you're doing well. I have a question. A brother stood up in church to confess that the reason he got baptized was to marry a sister in the congregation, not that he was convinced that it would give him salvation. He requested that he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35476,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-i-quote-the-early-christian-writers-on-the-necessity-of-baptism-does-that-make-my-argument-better\/","url_meta":{"origin":29046,"position":1},"title":"If I quote the early Christian writers on the necessity of baptism, does that make my argument better?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I found a whole list of early church fathers, Ante Nicene fathers who said baptism is necessary for salvation and it's a regeneration. I got Irenaeus, Tertullian, Ambrose, Justin Martyr, Clement, Cyprian, and the list goes on. Can I use these men and their quotes to back up the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30900,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-a-person-leaving-the-christian-church-need-to-be-baptized-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":29046,"position":2},"title":"Does a person leaving the Christian Church need to be baptized again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is your thinking (based on Scripture) on a situation where someone has been baptized in the Christian Church but says they were baptized for the remission of sins and they want to place membership in the church of Christ? Do they need to be baptized again? The argument\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2450,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-a-baptist-be-rebaptized-even-though-he-says-he-was-baptized-for-the-right-reason\/","url_meta":{"origin":29046,"position":3},"title":"Must a Baptist be rebaptized even though he says he was baptized for the right reason?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was raised in the church of Christ. I am married to someone who was raised in the Baptist church. She has no problem with going to church with me. But she doesn't think that she should be baptized again. She says that she was baptized for the same\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45792,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/three-questions-about-church-of-christ-teachings-on-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":29046,"position":4},"title":"Three questions about Church of Christ teachings on baptism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Sir, I have three questions that are about the teachings of the Church of Christ. Why does the COC dismiss the case of the thief on the cross by saying that it happened \"under the Old Testament\" when in fact the thief was saved after the blood of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34164,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-primitive-baptists-believe\/","url_meta":{"origin":29046,"position":5},"title":"What do Primitive Baptists believe?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: To start with, I want to thank you for your website, particularly the questions and answers section. It is well organized and presents a strong knowledge base, which I am now wanting to draw from. I am a member of the church of Christ and have been using your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","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\/29046","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=29046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}