Recently a portion of our congregation (approximately 30 out of 110-120) started meeting at a separate time from the normal time but in the same building. On Sunday we meet in the morning for Bible classes and worship and then in the evening again for another period of worship. This group began meeting in the afternoon instead of worshiping with us during our normal times. The first time that they did it we were all surprised, then they did it a second Sunday, and finally, on the third Sunday, we met them after their service was over and told them that we could no longer allow them to do this. We should have one worship service together at our regular hours, and that they should come back to our normal worship hours. The group refused to do this, and we informed them that we were going to change the locks on the building to prevent this second service, that all worship services will continue at normal hours, and we want them back with us.<\/p>\n
The reason for the second worship service was not due to space in our building, as we have seating for upwards of 180-200 and our regular attendance was only 110-120. They have now claimed that we kicked them out and told them that they were not welcome at our church, which is totally untrue.<\/p>\n
My question is: Did we do the right thing? Should we have continued to allow them to meet at a separate time from us? Our church does not have elders, so it was basically just the men of the congregation handling the situation. The group that separated from us did not have a preacher, the preacher stayed and worked the normal worship hours. Maybe we intervened too quickly? I’m worried that we might have handled the situation incorrectly. We want them to worship with us at normal worship hours, but they have refused, claiming that we kicked them out of the church by locking the doors. What is your advice?<\/p>\n\t
You had a group that wanted to start a second church while making use of the congregation’s building. They could not be considered the same congregation since they were not worshiping with the rest of the church. Worship is when “the whole church comes together in one place<\/em>” (I Corinthians 14:23). If a collection is being taken, somehow I would suspect that it is not being added to the congregation’s funds.<\/p>\n What was done was correct. The claims by the rebel group are meaningless. They left the church to worship separately. The only difference in what they did and going off to a new location to form a new church is their making use of the original church’s facilities. I’m surprised they thought they could get away with it.<\/p>\n I am curious as to why they thought they could not worship with the rest of the church, but that is really a side issue in this matter at this point.<\/p>\n No, nothing wrong was done.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Recently a portion of our congregation (approximately 30 out of 110-120) started meeting at a separate time from the normal time but in the same building. On Sunday we meet in the morning for Bible classes and worship and then in the evening again for another period of worship. This group began meeting in…<\/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":[448],"class_list":["post-34310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28581,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-early-church-meet-on-any-other-days-than-sunday\/","url_meta":{"origin":34310,"position":0},"title":"Did the early church meet on any other days than Sunday?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: According to Hebrew 10:25, is there any example from the early churches meeting on any other days for Bible study or the like other than Sunday worship service? Answer: \"So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food\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":36159,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-i-do-wrong-bringing-up-an-issue-about-when-the-collection-should-be-counted\/","url_meta":{"origin":34310,"position":1},"title":"Did I do wrong bringing up an issue about when the collection should be counted?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My wife and I moved to this community several years ago. We've been attending the church and have grown increasingly active through the years. I now teach both on Sunday morning and Wednesday night and we help where we can. Our church has a normal weekly attendance under 100,\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":47553,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/am-i-wrong-to-let-small-group-meetings-bother-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":34310,"position":2},"title":"Am I wrong to let small group meetings bother me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, The congregation where we are members is now having a \"small group\" meet separately on some Sunday nights while we still have a worship service at the building. It is designed for young families as some way to grow that group. This practice is being pushed by a\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":17928,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-a-sin-to-go-to-a-youth-group-or-chapel-service-during-the-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":34310,"position":3},"title":"Is it a sin to go to a youth group or chapel service during the week?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I saw that the church only met on the first day of the week to gather and worship. Does this mean that I sin if I go to youth groups on Wednesdays (while still going to church on Sunday), or if my school has weekly mandatory chapel services on\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":85728,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-gathering-in-a-care-facility-a-church-gathering\/","url_meta":{"origin":34310,"position":4},"title":"Is a gathering in a care facility a church gathering?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am autistic and live in a facility. I can't drive from here to any church. My sister could bring me, but she is not very consistent. I can't rely on her early Sunday mornings. However, the facility I am at has an hour-long gathering of believers on Monday\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":22322,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-small-group-meetings-in-place-of-the-sunday-evening-assembly-or-midweek-study-scriptural\/","url_meta":{"origin":34310,"position":5},"title":"Are small group meetings in place of the Sunday evening assembly or midweek study scriptural?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello. I appreciate your work and respect your knowledge of the Word. I have a question concerning the small group phenomenon in the Lord's church. Is there a scriptural basis for the small group to not assemble at the appointed times (mostly Sunday evening worship and Wednesday Bible study)\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\/34310","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=34310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}