I am a member of the church of Christ in Malawi. I would like to find out how the churches of Christ in the USA register with the government. Is it that every congregation registers independently? or is there one registration for all congregations of the churches of Christ? How do are disputes between individual congregations handled?<\/p>\n\t
The United States government does not require churches to register with it. The closest it comes to this is that it offers an exemption from taxes to non-profit organizations, which would include churches. Each congregation independently chooses whether to register for that exemption or not, but no church is forced to register or even needs to register. See: Are you a 501C church?<\/a><\/p>\n If we were in a country that requires registration, then each congregation would follow the government’s requirements so long as those requirements did not interfere with the church’s business. When the government does try to restrict a congregation, we simply ignore the government in whatever matter they are wrong in regards to the church. We do so pleasantly, calmly, and quietly.<\/p>\n There isn’t much interaction between churches. If members of a church come to this one teaching a false doctrine, we will contact that other church to find out if that is what they are actually teaching. If they are teaching falsely, we will try to persuade them to return to the truth. If they refuse, we simply cease to interact with them. See Church Autonomy<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Cross Congregational Fellowship<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t Thanks, Brother Hamilton. This has really assisted me a lot.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I am a member of the church of Christ in Malawi. I would like to find out how the churches of Christ in the USA register with the government. Is it that every congregation registers independently? or is there one registration for all congregations of the churches of Christ? How do are disputes between…<\/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":[448,310],"class_list":["post-33481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church","tag-government"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34559,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-filing-for-a-501c3-exemption-making-a-covenant-with-the-people-of-the-land\/","url_meta":{"origin":33481,"position":0},"title":"Isn’t filing for a 501(c)(3) exemption making a covenant with the people of the land?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Exodus 34:12 reads in the NASB: \"Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, lest it becomes a snare in your midst.\" Without expending too much on the passage in Exodus 34:12, I am trying to determine the extent\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":28489,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-church-register-as-a-charitable-organization-to-get-grants-from-the-government\/","url_meta":{"origin":33481,"position":1},"title":"Can a church register as a charitable organization to get grants from the government?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it scriptural for a church of Christ to register as a charitable organization? By charitable organization, I mean being exempted from tax and duties, and receiving financial grants from the government in order to fund missionary projects, etc.? Is it good for a church of Christ to venture\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":67110,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-the-churches-of-christ-the-only-correct-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":33481,"position":2},"title":"Are the churches of Christ the only correct church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Jeffery, In the article \"Wasn't Babel the city of Eridu?\" you mentioned, \"You will not find any claim that the churches of Christ are the only correct church on this site.\" Do you no longer believe in the one true church? I understand that not every church with\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":44464,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-churches-have-boards-of-directors\/","url_meta":{"origin":33481,"position":3},"title":"Do churches have boards of directors?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My congregation is considering closing and dispersing due to a continued decrease in attendance and the inability to draw new members or visitors. Now I hear we have to have approval from our \"board of directors\"? Does each church of Christ have a board of directors? Thank you very\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":28411,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-the-presbyterians-and-the-episcopals-come-by-their-names\/","url_meta":{"origin":33481,"position":4},"title":"How did the Presbyterians and the Episcopals come by their names?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Recently we studied the qualifications of elders and I mentioned the Greek words, Presbuterous (elder, presbyter) and Episkopos (bishop, overseer), and one of the members here asked if this is how the Presbyterian and Episcopal churches came up with their names for identifying their churches. I did some research\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":36014,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-some-churches-using-bassing-in-their-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":33481,"position":5},"title":"Why are some churches using “bassing” in their worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is your opinion on one song leader bassing into the microphone (or beatboxing as I call it) while the other lead songs? It seems like a lot of our churches of Christ are starting to feel comfortable with this practice. I thought sing means singing. And if we\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\/33481","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=33481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Response:<\/h2>\n