First, I would like to compliment you on your website. There have been many times I have included the phrase “La Vista Church of Christ” when web searching tough scriptural questions that I have.<\/p>\n
I am an elder in the church of Christ. We are in the process of appointing deacons. We are considering a brother to be a deacon, who, although is a good worker in the church, is a questionable father. I Timothy 3:12 states that one of the qualifications of a deacon is “ruling their children and their own houses well.<\/em>” This man allows his teenage son to attend the worship services of denominations, where his friends attend. His son is not a member of the church yet. While I would like to know if God would consider this man to be a good father by allowing his son to attend worship services outside the church, I’m more concerned about the spiritual welfare of this man’s son.<\/p>\n Any advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated!<\/p>\n\t It would appear that this man either values his son having friends over scriptural accuracy in worship or he has been unable to convince his son what the Bible says about worship and being a Christian. In the case of the latter, he may be giving in to keep peace in his home, thinking if he gives his son what he wants, then the son won’t hate him. However, this is all conjecture.<\/p>\n May I suggest that you simply tell the father you are concerned about his son and his apparent preference to worship elsewhere and ask if there is some way you can help? Then be prepared to listen. Only after getting more details about the dynamics that are going on would I make a decision.<\/p>\n I will say that, in general, I would not consider this an example of a man ruling his household well. We are not a part of the denominations because they teach error. If that isn’t getting across to the boy, then something is not going correctly in the home.<\/p>\n “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds<\/em>” (II John 9-11).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Frequently attending worship services of a group that is teaching false doctrine is giving them support.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: First, I would like to compliment you on your website. There have been many times I have included the phrase “La Vista Church of Christ” when web searching tough scriptural questions that I have. I am an elder in the church of Christ. We are in the process of appointing deacons. We are considering…<\/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":[1568],"class_list":["post-40822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-deacons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40749,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-man-be-a-deacon-in-the-church-if-he-doesnt-have-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":40822,"position":0},"title":"Can a man be a deacon in the church if he doesn’t have children?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question I would very much like an answer to: Can a man be a deacon in the church if he doesn't have children? Answer: \"Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households\" (I Timothy 3:12). \"Must\"\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":48527,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-a-man-be-appointed-a-deacon-when-he-only-attends-sunday-morning-services\/","url_meta":{"origin":40822,"position":1},"title":"Should a man be appointed a deacon when he only attends Sunday morning services?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I emailed you before about a topic, and you had an answer that I did not agree with at all, but today I have an unrelated question. At our church, we are in the process of selecting new deacons. Is it wrong for me to think it is 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":29544,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-a-conflict-of-interest-if-a-man-is-both-a-preacher-and-an-elder-or-deacon\/","url_meta":{"origin":40822,"position":2},"title":"Is there a conflict of interest if a man is both a preacher and an elder or deacon?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question that I am struggling with. I can't find any scriptural reasons against what has been done at our local church but still have an uneasiness about it. We have a smaller church whose membership has been trending down the past several years since our minister\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":16170,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/may-a-church-without-elders-appoint-deacons\/","url_meta":{"origin":40822,"position":3},"title":"May a church without elders appoint deacons?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: May a church assign to a servant or servants (deacons) a specific task or tasks in which they will serve the congregation and for which they will be responsible and answerable to the congregation for performing if the church does not have elders. In other words, may they set\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":66639,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-a-man-gains-children-through-marriage-is-he-qualified-to-be-a-deacon\/","url_meta":{"origin":40822,"position":4},"title":"If a man gains children through marriage, is he qualified to be a deacon?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know the Bible says a deacon is to have one wife and rule their children well, among other qualifications, but these are the two I have a question about (I Timothy 3:8-12). If a deacon is divorced based on scriptural grounds, meaning his wife cheated on him 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":29249,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/servants-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":40822,"position":5},"title":"Servants of the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Acts 6:1-6 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Early in the church\u2019s history, the number of brethren increased dramatically. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With that increase came \u201cgrowing pains.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Circumstances caused the church in Jerusalem to have a large number of widows who needed care. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Some felt that preference was being given to native\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40822","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=40822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n