Hello,<\/p>\n
I was just wondering if maybe you could tell me if there is a biblical answer for this situation. A congregation of the Lord’s church just bought land adjoining the land the building where we meet sits on right now. It was purchased to expand at a later time (no time soon). If we didn’t purchase it, we would not get another chance. There is a house on the land and it has been brought up in the men’s business meeting that we should fix up the house and rent it out. I am against the whole idea because I feel like the Lord’s church is not in the real estate business and when I voiced my opinion I was told it does not say in the Bible it would be wrong. My idea was to sell the house (as is) and use the money to help pay for the land that came with it that we need for future purposes. But I don’t think we should be in the real estate business of house renting to pay for the land because that still leaves us with a house we don’t need, will have to keep up, and sell for profit later. That’s not how the Lord’s church is supposed to support itself. Sorry, this was so long. Any biblical help would be appreciated.<\/p>\n\t
God authorized the church only to raise funds through voluntary offerings (I Corinthians 16:1-2). Anything else is unauthorized.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hello, I was just wondering if maybe you could tell me if there is a biblical answer for this situation. A congregation of the Lord’s church just bought land adjoining the land the building where we meet sits on right now. It was purchased to expand at a later time (no time soon). If…<\/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":[154],"class_list":["post-36305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church-funds"],"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":36305,"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":28900,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-for-a-church-to-be-incorporated\/","url_meta":{"origin":36305,"position":1},"title":"Is it wrong for a church to be incorporated?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If a\u00a0 Christian does not want to attend an incorporated church because he says it's wrong, is it right for him and his wife to worship alone on the Lord's day because he says an incorporated church is in sin, and he cannot find a church that is not\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":69866,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-church-let-the-community-use-its-well\/","url_meta":{"origin":36305,"position":2},"title":"Can a church let the community use its well?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings Brother Hamilton, I trust you are doing great today. I have this conflict to clarify:\u00a0I understand the church is not suppose to go into business or maintain one. But I have a challenge; My congregation was gifted a piece of land with a sunken borehole (well) 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":41067,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-proper-to-rent-out-the-church-building\/","url_meta":{"origin":36305,"position":3},"title":"Is it proper to rent out the church building?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Here is my question. Is it right scripturally to rent out the church building to non-Christians for business or charitable purposes? I feel uncomfortable about a congregation that does this. Answer: The only authorized means for a church to collect funds is by voluntary contributions of its members (I\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":18755,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-it-be-wrong-to-use-the-churchs-property-for-a-garden\/","url_meta":{"origin":36305,"position":4},"title":"Would it be wrong to use the church’s property for a garden?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it OKfor a congregation to allow members to use the property to grow a garden if they are in need?\u00a0 One example may be a guy who is living in an apartment and has no property. Another may be a family who has a nice lawn and doesn't\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":58938,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/question-and-answer-about-church-socials\/","url_meta":{"origin":36305,"position":5},"title":"Question and Answer About Church Socials","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Leslie Diestelkamp Two questions have been asked: (1) Why doesn't the church have more socials? and (2) Why can't we have parties in the basement of the church building? The New Testament authorizes every act and activity of the church. It provides us with all that pertains to life\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":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36305","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=36305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}