I am a member of a church where there is a split of our church family. This revolves around a man (who is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0a member) who has attended this church as a visitor for many years. He stirs up discord within the church habitually. There was a recent incident of this, and the pastor of the church told him that due to many members being angry with him that he shouldn’t attend church there for a little over a week until a church meeting would be held.<\/p>\n The man then called several of his church friends, and talked about how unjustly he was being treated and that things needed to change in that church, and that the minister had been treating him like a “dog”. So now his friends who are<\/em> members of the church are angry and want an apology from the minister for his actions without the consent of the entire church membership.<\/p>\n Was our minister correct in his actions? Should this man be asked to not attend? Remember this man is not<\/em> a church member, only a long-time visitor. Your input would be welcome. I am trying to find scripture that supports this issue before our business meeting so I can make godly decisions.<\/p>\n\t “Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned<\/em>” (Titus 3:10-11).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Whether your minister should have taken matters on directly since the group was not, is something I can’t answer. Preachers do have the authority to teach God’s truth, even if others don’t like it. “Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you<\/em>” (Titus 2:15). What the preacher did was not out of line. The fact is that tolerance of sin is not a good thing. “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?<\/em>” (I Corinthians 5:6).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I am a member of a church where there is a split of our church family. This revolves around a man (who is\u00a0not\u00a0a member) who has attended this church as a visitor for many years. He stirs up discord within the church habitually. There was a recent incident of this, and the pastor of…<\/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":[356,231],"class_list":["post-37798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-attendance","tag-strife"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5767,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-preacher-kick-members-out-of-a-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":37798,"position":0},"title":"Can a preacher kick members out of a church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can a preacher kick members out of the church? Answer: The primary job of a preacher, as described in the Bible, is to be a herald of God's good news. He teaches those outside the church how to become a part of the church. He teaches those inside and\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":87357,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-am-i-worth-to-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":37798,"position":1},"title":"What Am I Worth to the Church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 31, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Author Unknown Many passages of Scripture discuss the quality of character that is supposed to be possessed by those who follow Christ. Most of the epistles of the New Testament are directed to that end. While there is a desire among brethren to enlarge the numbers of people who profess\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":54903,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-a-baptized-person-a-member-of-the-local-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":37798,"position":2},"title":"Isn’t a baptized person a member of the local congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a bit confused. My understanding has always been that if an individual were visiting us, and they obeyed the gospel while here, I would direct them to a sound church in their area. They would not be a member of the local church here, although they obeyed\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":55569,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-yours-mine-or-the-lords\/","url_meta":{"origin":37798,"position":3},"title":"The Church: Yours, Mine, or the Lord’s?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clem Thurman via\u00a0Gospel Minutes, Feb. 6, 1976 Questions: Isn't it true that the present-day church of Christ was begun in the early 1800s by Alexander and Thomas Campbell? Was there any organization of your church from the first to\u00a0the 18th centuries? On what basis can your ministers claim that\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":42120,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-right-to-pay-a-church-secretary\/","url_meta":{"origin":37798,"position":4},"title":"Is it right to pay a church secretary?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a member of a large, conservative church of Christ. The one thing that bothers me is that we have a lady, who I love dearly, who has been the \"church secretary\" for many years and is being paid a salary. I can't find where this is scriptural.\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":59347,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-right-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":37798,"position":5},"title":"The “Right” Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert F. Turner A brother told me his friend asked if the church of which he was a member was the true church. The brother is an honest, conscientious man, and he said he couldn't tell his friend the church of which he was a member was perfect. He\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37798","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=37798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n