by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
What if a local church of Christ in your area was totally up to you? What if the Lord was counting on you to make sure there is a sound, biblical and encouraging church that existed and continued to hold up the truth of the gospel? If it weakens or dies, it is blood on your hands for not taking responsibility. What if God is expecting you to nourish and cherish the church because Jesus spilled His precious blood for her (Acts 20:28; Ephesians 5:25ff).<\/p>\n
The will of God is clear. The success or failure of having such a church in your area does indeed fall on you. Think about what God expects of you! In every area where Christians exist, there should be a church that meets according to the Scriptures, God’s word. Take your hands to that plow and never look back at worthless endeavors of this world.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry Wane Benton What if a local church of Christ in your area was totally up to you? What if the Lord was counting on you to make sure there is a sound, biblical and encouraging church that existed and continued to hold up the truth of the gospel? If it weakens or dies,…<\/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":[27],"tags":[448,544,354],"class_list":["post-34387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-church","tag-membership","tag-responsibility"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":94893,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/irresponsibility-crucified-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":34387,"position":0},"title":"Irresponsibility Crucified Jesus","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 2, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Pilate thought he could just wash his hands of any responsibility, and while we think little of Pilate for trying to pass off his responsibility, how are we better than Pilate when we do not stand up for Jesus when we should? Is Pilate really much\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":51467,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-reasonable-to-ask-the-church-to-fund-projects-that-are-not-sustainable\/","url_meta":{"origin":34387,"position":1},"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":57963,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-lords-church-is-magnificent\/","url_meta":{"origin":34387,"position":2},"title":"The Lord’s Church Is Magnificent","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jim Ward via the Lost River Bulletin, Vol. 59, No. 2, Feb. 2009. The term church occurs nine times in the book of Ephesians with nine additional references to the church using the term body, and one each using household of God and temple, it is apparent that this\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":16850,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-about-a-church-funding-a-school-or-senior-housing\/","url_meta":{"origin":34387,"position":3},"title":"What do you think about a church funding a school or senior housing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was just wanting to get more information on schools in the Lord's church. Our minister is in the process of obtaining funds from the church to open up a school in order to teach the children to read. He also mentioned opening a home for the seniors 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":38885,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/placing-membership\/","url_meta":{"origin":34387,"position":4},"title":"Placing Membership","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Lee Moses Sometimes questions arise as to whether it is scripturally necessary, or even scripturally permissible, to \"place membership\" with a congregation. A modern brother or sister may raise the objection: \"I'm a member of the church of Christ, and that's good enough for me.\" What this person means\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":69794,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-right-for-a-church-to-support-a-bible-school\/","url_meta":{"origin":34387,"position":5},"title":"Is it right for a church to support a Bible school?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings to you, Brother Hamilton; I trust you have been in good health. I need your guidance on these issues: Is it a sin for the church to financially support Bible schools? The church sometimes requests Bible school students to help carry out a massive evangelism campaign. How can\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\/34387","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=34387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}