Hello, Mr. Hamilton,<\/p>\n
I hope this finds you well.<\/p>\n
Every morning on my way to work I listen to your sermons. I greatly appreciate the work you have put into your program, as I have learned so much listening to them over the last couple of years.<\/p>\n
I belong to the church of Christ. Recently, one of the men of our congregation was asked by a local Baptist pastor if their church could retain the use of our baptistery as theirs was out of service. When discussing this matter during the men’s meeting some were ok with it and others were not. Myself, I did not see anything wrong with loaning the baptistery. My view is that the baptistery is just a part of the building, not part of the church. Others were opposed, worried about how it would look to other congregations. And quite honestly, I can see their point as well.<\/p>\n
If you don’t mind me asking, I would love to hear your view on this matter.<\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n\t
The vast majority of Baptists do not see baptism as necessary for salvation. They use baptism as a way to join their local church.<\/p>\n
It is true that the building is not the church, but what the church allows its building to be used for gives the impression to the world around that the congregation approves of the use. “Providing honorable things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men<\/em>” (II Corinthians 8:21). We have to keep in mind that others are watching us. How can the group there argue that the type of baptism performed by the Baptists is wrong when they help the Baptist gain members?<\/p>\n There is a strong desire in people to avoid conflict. They want to say that every group calling itself “Christian” is the same. But it isn’t the truth. The Lord’s people are not a denomination (I Corinthians 1:10), nor can they be involved in promoting denominationalism.<\/p>\n\t Thank you!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hello, Mr. Hamilton, I hope this finds you well. Every morning on my way to work I listen to your sermons. I greatly appreciate the work you have put into your program, as I have learned so much listening to them over the last couple of years. I belong to the church of Christ.…<\/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":[52,1277,628,353],"class_list":["post-43246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-baptism","tag-denominationalism","tag-ecumenical","tag-influence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38992,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/an-inquiry-into-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":43246,"position":0},"title":"An Inquiry into Baptism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Sprinkling, Pouring, or Immersion, Which Shall It Be? by Jefferson David Tant Introduction Since the Bible teaches that baptism is an essential part of my relationship with Christ (Mark 16:16; Galatians 3:27; Romans 6:3-5, etc.), then it behooves me to make sure that my baptism is pleasing to the one\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":30095,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/fellowship-halls\/","url_meta":{"origin":43246,"position":1},"title":"Fellowship Halls? (Dunagan)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mark Dunagan Somewhere in the past, the idea entered the Church of Christ that it would be all right to take the funds collected on the first day of the week and construct a church building which would include such things as a kitchen and a large dining room\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":25431,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-is-a-baptism-valid\/","url_meta":{"origin":43246,"position":2},"title":"When Is a Baptism Valid?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew Bassford Seven or eight years ago, I got a call from a brother in St. Louis who asked me to study with his mother.\u00a0 I set up the study and began, as I usually do, by asking her questions about her religious background.\u00a0 She explained that she had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Baptism5.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":23275,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/confusing-mercy-with-justice\/","url_meta":{"origin":43246,"position":3},"title":"Confusing Mercy with Justice","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford The other Sunday, I was approached by one of the younger sisters at church. She had a couple of questions. They involved hypotheticals that many of us have encountered before. What about the tribesman in the Amazon jungle who never gets to hear about the gospel?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Balance-Scale-300x236.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":91770,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-can-perform-a-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":43246,"position":4},"title":"Who Can Perform a Baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Samuel Matthews \"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe\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":23922,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-teaching-in-prisons-and-rehab-centers-worth-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":43246,"position":5},"title":"Is teaching in prisons and rehab centers worth it?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Our church has been working with a prison ministry. It began many years ago by a lady who would travel many miles to the women's prison. In that time I only know of one woman who came to be baptized, and, if my memory serves me right, when she\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\/43246","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=43246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Response:<\/h2>\n