The Work of the Church<\/a> for details. Holding parties for departing members doesn’t fit in any of these categories; thus, the burden is to show that God commanded the church to do some area of work that would include holding parties for members. I don’t know of any.<\/p>\n\nThe church’s funds exist to finance the church’s work on behalf of God. The funds should be views as belong to God and not men. Thus, it is God who declares what the church is to do and how to spend its funds. Presents to members is not an authorized church work. It falls to the Christians to do nice things for each other. If Christians want to raise money to give a gift, that is their decision and must not involve the church.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Thank you, Brother Jeffrey<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Please, I would like to ask the following questions: Is it scriptural for the church to organize a send-forth program for its outgoing preacher, elder, or faithful member who is relocating? The program typically involves citation, extolling of virtues, prayers, and presentation of gifts purchased by both the church and individual brethren. Is it…<\/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":[20],"tags":[154],"class_list":["post-29889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church-funds"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3747,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-lectureships-scriptural\/","url_meta":{"origin":29889,"position":0},"title":"Are lectureships scriptural?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Tell me your thoughts about \"lectureships.\"\u00a0 Is this a scriptural term?\u00a0 Do we have authority for women lectureships? Answer: Let us establish a basic point. The question is not whether a particular term is found in the Bible or not. After all, language changes constantly. What might have made\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":21010,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-our-college-bible-study-group-operating-in-a-scriptural-manner\/","url_meta":{"origin":29889,"position":1},"title":"Is our college Bible study group operating in a scriptural manner?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I recently was baptized into the church of Christ. I have been attending services at a local church of Christ for over three years, but being raised in a Catholic environment I wanted to learn more before being baptized. Within the past year I joined the Christian Student Center\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":51467,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-reasonable-to-ask-the-church-to-fund-projects-that-are-not-sustainable\/","url_meta":{"origin":29889,"position":2},"title":"Is it reasonable to ask the church to fund projects that are not sustainable?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good afternoon, Brother Hamilton: You were very kind to answer a question for me a few years back, and your answer gave me such clarity. I'll be ever-grateful for your guidance. I have another question with which I'm struggling. It regards funding for church-related projects. Our elders have established\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":27508,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-right-for-a-church-to-raise-money-for-a-preacher-school-or-to-have-leaders-instead-of-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":29889,"position":3},"title":"Is it right for a church to raise money for a preacher school or to have leaders instead of elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a concern over a recent request from a brethren who is a church leader of the congregation where I was baptized years before. He was asking me to help financially support the church planting mission being undertaken by the missionary training academy established by the congregation over\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":2822,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-the-church-use-its-funds-to-send-flowers\/","url_meta":{"origin":29889,"position":4},"title":"Can the church use its funds to send flowers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In an attempt to justify the church using money out of its treasury to send flowers to sick or bereaved members, an argument has been made that it is a \"gift\" meant to encourage, like the gifts sent to Paul in\u00a0Philippians 4:15-19.\u00a0 In comments I have read in discussions\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":24723,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-temporary-meetings-such-as-at-a-remote-military-base-really-a-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":29889,"position":5},"title":"Are temporary meetings, such as at a remote military base, really a church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about a certain type of assembly that I am not sure is scriptural. During the invitation at the church building tonight, the speaker used Matthew 18:15-20 to distinguish between individual, group, and church. I agreed with the points he made. After the lesson, there was\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\/29889","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=29889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}