{"id":40322,"date":"2013-09-18T21:34:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-19T02:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=40322"},"modified":"2021-12-03T21:36:53","modified_gmt":"2021-12-04T03:36:53","slug":"our-congregation-would-be-very-liberal-if-they-had-the-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/our-congregation-would-be-very-liberal-if-they-had-the-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Our congregation would be very liberal if they had the money"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

Hi,<\/p>\n

I came across your website as I was doing research on the “One Nation Under God” effort by the church of Christ in Tennessee. I want to say I enjoyed reading\u00a0your article<\/a> on Institutionalism. I intend on reading more of your articles. We are attending a congregation where we moved about a year and a half ago. They would be very liberal if they had the money, but we are trying to teach them, particularly the minister, on this very issue. Our son-in-law and daughter are holding a Monday night Bible class in their home, to teach on this and other doctrines we don’t feel they are following the Bible on (fellowship hall, orphan homes, feeding orphans in Africa through another congregation, etc.). To say the least, we aren’t making much headway and it’s very disheartening, especially when they are beginning to press their liberal ideas on us knowing what we believe on these issues. We first thought we could work with them and we are trying, but the only one now coming to this class is the minister. These next few classes will tell if we are going to have to decide to do something different or not in regards to worship.<\/p>\n

Anyway, sorry to bend your ear. I’ve sent the link to your website to my husband and my son-in-law and they will be looking to see if they can use some of your points in the next class.<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

I can sympathize. One semester, when I was in college, I was in an area where there were no sound, conservative congregations nearby. Such situations are really hard. Teach as much as you can, and if rejected, start another work — after all that is how Christianity spreads. At least your family forms a core to start a new work.<\/p>\n

What I suggest is to start with the very basics:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. God has all authority and man must serve him<\/li>\n
  2. Man has no right to innovate<\/li>\n
  3. We have to have authority for everything we do<\/li>\n
  4. How to establish authority: Command, approved example, and inescapable conclusions.<\/li>\n
  5. Examples of those who did not follow God<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Liberalism exists because people left the core of what makes Christianity distinctive, taking the easy emotional ways. It is surprising how many can state slogans of the past that are accurate, yet never stop to realize that they have no meaning for them because they do not follow them. So take people back to their roots. Fire them up with a zeal for knowing the truth.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Question: Hi, I came across your website as I was doing research on the “One Nation Under God” effort by the church of Christ in Tennessee. I want to say I enjoyed reading\u00a0your article on Institutionalism. I intend on reading more of your articles. We are attending a congregation where we moved about a year…<\/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":[78,192],"class_list":["post-40322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-authority","tag-liberalism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9684,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-there-are-no-sound-churches-in-my-area-should-i-worship-with-a-liberal-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":40322,"position":0},"title":"If there are no sound churches in my area, should I worship with a liberal one?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am disabled and would like to attend an anti-church but there are none nearby and I was wondering if it would be okay to take communion at a liberal church instead of missing communion with the Lord? Answer: All Christians are required to partake of the communion 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":23218,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/have-you-been-able-to-convert-people-from-liberal-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":40322,"position":1},"title":"Have you been able to convert people from liberal churches?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was wondering, have you had any luck converting those who use their buildings for recreation? I have a lot of friends who attend liberal churches of christ and I just wondered if you had any advice on how to correct. Thanks. Answer: Several of the current members at\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":18667,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-kind-of-questions-should-i-ask-the-elders-before-joining-a-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":40322,"position":2},"title":"What kind of questions should I ask the elders before joining a church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I think that I have found a church where I would like to\u00a0worship. But first, I think that I should have a meeting with the elders before I place my membership there. I was wondering what questions I should ask the elders to make sure that they and the\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":55460,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/changing-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":40322,"position":3},"title":"Changing Churches","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Benjamin M. Shropshire via bulletin of the Leeward church of Christ in Waipahu, Hawaii, August 12, 2007 Someone who had moved his membership from one church to another was asked why he had left his former church. He answered, \"I didn't leave my church; my church left me.\" By\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":22002,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-congregation-is-becoming-more-unscriptural-should-i-find-another-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":40322,"position":4},"title":"My congregation is becoming more unscriptural. Should I find another one?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My home congregation is slowly beginning to make some unscriptural moves. I have been told by another gospel preacher that my home congregation has a bad reputation. Our evangelist holds an erroneous view on marriage, divorce, and remarriage. He believes that Christ's covenant is for Christians only and that\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":7060,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-should-i-leave-a-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":40322,"position":5},"title":"When should I leave a church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am looking for guidance on where I should worship in general and more specifically: If there are multiple sound congregations nearby, must I worship with the most local? Am I free (in God's eyes) to change which local congregations I worship with as I please? When must 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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40322","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=40322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}