What is your advice to the teachers of a group of people who have been taught the word in a group Bible study, have accepted it, gotten baptized, but do not want to attend the Lord’s church?\u00a0 They have wholeheartedly for months have been happy to keep studying the Scriptures and are making positive changes in their lives based upon what they have read and have been taught, but are attending denominational churches. Whenever the subject of the church is brought up, they claim to not understand the connection even though they understand everything else. Do we continue to show patience and mercy?<\/p>\n
Thank you!<\/p>\n\t
You’ve listed out what has happened, but why these choices are being made is not clear. I suspect that they have ties to family and friends at these churches, so they would rather pretend there isn’t anything wrong.<\/p>\n
Personally, as long as people are willing to learn, I continue to teach. I keep hoping that something we cover will eventually bring them around. Sometimes it happens, more often these types of people lose interest (the parable of the sower). Too often people think baptism is the endpoint when it is really just the start.<\/p>\n
I don’t know what has been covered yet, but make sure to cover worshiping God in the way that God wants to be worshiped. Learn examples, such as King Saul who thought he was obeying God but was modifying God’s commands (I Samuel 13,15).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: What is your advice to the teachers of a group of people who have been taught the word in a group Bible study, have accepted it, gotten baptized, but do not want to attend the Lord’s church?\u00a0 They have wholeheartedly for months have been happy to keep studying the Scriptures and are making positive…<\/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":[1277,451],"class_list":["post-33503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-denominationalism","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50931,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-christians-purchase-dinners-from-denominational-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":33503,"position":0},"title":"Should Christians purchase dinners from denominational churches?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Should Christians purchase dinners from denominational churches? Answer: Start by reading Should a Christian attend a university operated by a denomination? It covers many of the basic principles we need to discuss. The core question is: Does the purchase show support for the denomination and its teachings? For example,\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":39593,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-choose-the-wrong-church-to-attend-as-a-christian\/","url_meta":{"origin":33503,"position":1},"title":"Can you choose the wrong church to attend as a Christian?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear sirs, I thank you for your site. It has been a great source of information as a new believer. Although I always considered myself a Christian, I never truly understood its true meaning until starting and completing, cover-to-cover for the first time, the Bible last year culminating in\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":19690,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-christians-in-all-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":33503,"position":2},"title":"Are there Christians in all churches?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a friend that is a member of a denominational church. I am a member of Christ's church. We had a discussion about Christians. I told her that she is not a Christian because she has not been added to the Lord's one and only church of Christ.\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":31789,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-be-saved-and-in-a-denomination\/","url_meta":{"origin":33503,"position":3},"title":"Can you be saved and in a denomination?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I understand that the word \"church,\" as used in scripture, has two meanings: (1) the universal church - consisting of all redeemed souls that have obeyed the authorized steps of hearing the Word of God, believing (that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our Savior), repenting (change\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":55898,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-hard-preaching-pay\/","url_meta":{"origin":33503,"position":4},"title":"Does “Hard” Preaching Pay?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Fanning Yater Tant For several years there has been a discussion within the brotherhood as to the relative merits of \"hard\" preaching in comparison with \"persuasive\" preaching. By this latter is meant the type of preaching that never refers to a denominational church by name, uses the Dale Carnegie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40869,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-sing-and-play-with-unbelievers\/","url_meta":{"origin":33503,"position":5},"title":"Is it wrong to sing and play with unbelievers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My friend studied music in a university, graduated, and joined the state music band, which means he will always play in state events. However, He was disfellowshiped by the church on the grounds of playing instruments and singing with unbelievers. Is this right or wrong? In addition to this,\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":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33503","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=33503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}