Several members at my church are treating me like I’m no longer wanted there. When I try to talk to them they don’t want to hear it. It is really hard to think of leaving, I’ve been there all my life. My dad was a founding member of this congregation. Should I leave or put up with them?<\/p>\n\t
Several is not all of the members. I don’t know the cause of the trouble, but no matter where you go, you will always find people who do not act as they should. And the reality of the situation is that running away doesn’t solve the problem. Instead, you need to follow the principles God laid out for solving problems:<\/p>\n
“Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good<\/em>” (Romans 12:17-21).<\/p>\n
“See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all<\/em>” (I Thessalonians 5:15).<\/p>\n
“Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing<\/em>” (I Peter 3:8-9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Several members at my church are treating me like I’m no longer wanted there. When I try to talk to them they don’t want to hear it. It is really hard to think of leaving, I’ve been there all my life. My dad was a founding member of this congregation. Should I leave or…<\/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":[233,1513],"class_list":["post-35078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-friends","tag-relationships"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20063,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-tell-my-daughters-about-the-abuse-i-suffered-in-the-church-they-attend\/","url_meta":{"origin":35078,"position":0},"title":"Should I tell my daughters about the abuse I suffered in the church they attend?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was in a church for 12 years. I left because I was abused there. My two daughters are still there. I am afraid for them. I do not want them trained in this way. Should I tell them the truth? Answer: In some ways, it is hard for\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":43545,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-leave-the-baptist-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":35078,"position":1},"title":"Should I leave the Baptist church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've been up since 5 this morning wrestling through scriptures, websites, my pastor's teaching from three Wednesday nights ago entitled \"Is baptism required or necessary for salvation\" and emails from a close friend (who is a Baptist) who is trying to help me study the Scripture.\u00a0 I asked several\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":45854,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-only-teach-people-who-will-join-the-local-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":35078,"position":2},"title":"Should we only teach people who will join the local congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am writing for some advice.\u00a0 I live in a city and worship just outside the city in a small town.\u00a0 I have a passion for sharing the Gospel with the lost.\u00a0 While at a congregation in the city, I was blessed to share with people who often\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":24424,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-people-be-checked-out-before-accepting-them-in-a-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":35078,"position":3},"title":"Should people be checked out before accepting them in a congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I believe that there is a certain amount of due diligence necessary when a person, a couple, or a family move into the area and want to become members of a local congregation of the Lord's church. \u00a0What do you recommend? What do you do? One scripture that comes\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":47844,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-leave-an-ineffective-discouraging-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":35078,"position":4},"title":"Should I leave an ineffective, discouraging church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was looking through your website and found someone asked questions similar to questions I had at this page: When should I leave a church?\u00a0But I'm not sure you fully answered some of the questions, so I still wanted to ask them again. If there are multiple sound congregations\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":52500,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-stay-with-this-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":35078,"position":5},"title":"Should we stay with this congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Having moved about, my wife and I have worshiped with many congregations that follow the New Testament pattern. Currently, we are visiting a congregation that has a part-time minister and one elder. How this came about is murky. As our options are very limited, we have visited for several\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\/35078","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=35078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}