{"id":37631,"date":"2013-03-08T20:54:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-09T02:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=37631"},"modified":"2021-09-03T20:58:05","modified_gmt":"2021-09-04T01:58:05","slug":"should-i-speak-at-a-denominational-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-speak-at-a-denominational-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I speak at a denominational church?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Hi brother Jeff,<\/p>\n<p>I was discussing the Bible with a man who happens to be a member of a denomination. He also occupies a high position in their church. After reasoning with him from the Scripture, he asked me to come and preach in their church. I told him to give me time to think about it. Now my question is: as a member of the church of Christ is it good to preach in a denominational church?<\/p>\n<p>Thanks and God bless you.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>Though Paul had left Judaism, he did not bypass opportunities to go to the synagogues to preach. &#8220;<em>Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, &#8220;This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ&#8221; <\/em>&#8221; (Acts 17:1-3). Such did not interfere with his worship as a Christian since Jews met on the Sabbath and Christians met on the first day of the week.<\/p>\n<p>I would say that if you can speak at this denomination without it interfering with your worship with the saints, then you have an opportunity to spread the gospel to an audience that normally would not hear the truth. Use it well to speak the truth clearly. Perhaps, like Paul, you will find a few who will listen.<\/p>\n<p>One of the harder parts of going to a denominational group is that their worship often contains elements that violate the teachings of the Gospel. Either you don&#8217;t participate in those elements or you ask if they might modify their worship for the time to accommodate what the Scriptures teach.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Response:<\/h2>\n<p>Thank you for the answer to my question. I must say that finding your website is one of the greatest things that has happened to me. I am getting a new understanding through your site. May the Lord continue to strengthen you to do more for Him in Christ&#8217;s name. Amen!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Hi brother Jeff, I was discussing the Bible with a man who happens to be a member of a denomination. He also occupies a high position in their church. After reasoning with him from the Scripture, he asked me to come and preach in their church. I told him to give me time to&hellip;<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[300,536],"class_list":["post-37631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-denominations","tag-preaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61080,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-i-left-the-baptist-church-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":37631,"position":0},"title":"Why I Left the Baptist Church (Stevens)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Grover Stevens No Animosity For Baptists I would like to say in the beginning that I have no animosity whatsoever against Baptists. Personally, I have no reason for leaving the Baptist church, but quite to the contrary, if personal reasons counted, I would never have left the Baptist Church,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29355,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/denominationalizing-the-work-of-the-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":37631,"position":1},"title":"Denominationalizing the Work of the Lord","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jerry F. Bassett Sentry Magazine, March 2003 To denominate is \"to give a name to: designate,\" according to Miriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. This same source defines a religious denomination as \"a religious organization uniting local congregations in a single legal and administrative body -- denominational\" being the adjectival form\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32257,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/guilty-by-association\/","url_meta":{"origin":37631,"position":2},"title":"Guilty by Association","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Whit Sasser Sentry Magazine, December 2001 Was Jesus sinning when He ate with unfaithful Jewish brethren? Evidently, some thought so (Matthew 11:19), but you and I know it wasn't true; for Jesus did not sin in anything He did while on the earth (Hebrews 4:15). Did Jesus sin when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92017,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-you-a-member-of-the-church-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":37631,"position":3},"title":"Why Are You a Member of the Church of Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Vance E. Trefethen via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 3, September 1992 A full-page ad for the book \"Why I Am a Member of the Church of Christ\" recently caught my eye, with its bold headline: \"Now Is the Time to Act.\" Much of the message carried in this conservative\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"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":37631,"position":4},"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 &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3818,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-possible-to-preach-christ-and-not-preach-baptism-or-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":37631,"position":5},"title":"Is It Possible to Preach Christ and Not Preach Baptism or the Church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Donald Townsley via Guardian of Truth, December 15, 1988 From time to time men set forth the doctrine that we should \"preach Christ\" and leave the controversial subjects of the plan of salvation and the church alone. Some say, \"just preach the man and not the plan\"; others say,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37631","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=37631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}