{"id":49687,"date":"2016-12-30T20:09:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T02:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=49687"},"modified":"2022-07-09T20:21:21","modified_gmt":"2022-07-10T01:21:21","slug":"should-a-church-pay-for-a-members-cremation-or-ask-if-his-house-is-in-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-a-church-pay-for-a-members-cremation-or-ask-if-his-house-is-in-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Should a church pay for a member&#8217;s cremation or ask if his house is in order?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>On two separate occasions, the church paid for a member&#8217;s cremation. One member was asked if he had his house in order. Is this proper?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>The church is only involved in helping members with major disasters, such as a famine in the region (I Corinthians 8 and 9), or, in the longer-term, widows who have no family to take care of them (I Timothy 5:1-16). You did not mention if the cremation was for someone the church has authority to aid or not.<\/p>\n<p>The church is involved in teaching God&#8217;s word and one such issue is being good stewards of your finances. It would be appropriate to discuss whether plans have been made regarding future expenses, including one&#8217;s death. See sermons on <a href=\"https:\/\/lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/tag\/money-management\/\">money matters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: On two separate occasions, the church paid for a member&#8217;s cremation. One member was asked if he had his house in order. Is this proper? Answer: The church is only involved in helping members with major disasters, such as a famine in the region (I Corinthians 8 and 9), or, in the longer-term, widows&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,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[194,154,1505],"class_list":["post-49687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-benevolence","tag-church-funds","tag-funerals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42276,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-i-be-aware-of-my-body-decomposing\/","url_meta":{"origin":49687,"position":0},"title":"Will I be aware of my body decomposing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a random question about death that I was hoping you could answer. When I die will I be aware of my body decomposing? I'm afraid of that and afraid of bugs and worms eating my body. Will I truly not be in the grave? And is cremation\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":14269,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-gods-view-pertaining-to-cremation\/","url_meta":{"origin":49687,"position":1},"title":"What is God&#8217;s view pertaining to cremation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is God's view pertaining to cremation? Answer: When a person dies, his spirit leaves his body. In speaking of his death, Peter said, \"knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me\" (II Peter 1:14). Peter saw his body as\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":88704,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-individual-member-versus-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":49687,"position":2},"title":"The Individual Member Versus the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Charles Spence via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 17 No. 4, 31 December 1991 As those who obey the gospel are added to the Lord's church, they have a responsibility to join with disciples in their area. After his conversion, Paul sought to join the disciples who were assembling in Jerusalem. \"And\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":741,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-the-church-sponsor-the-growing-of-tobacco-to-raise-funds\/","url_meta":{"origin":49687,"position":3},"title":"Can the church sponsor the growing of tobacco to raise funds?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Some people depend on raising tobacco for income. Is it good for the church to use the Lord's money to sponsor this kind of agriculture? Answer: I found this question particularly intriguing because of the underlying assumptions. In order to answer the question well, I need to address several\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":15880,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/use-of-the-lords-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":49687,"position":4},"title":"Use of the Lord\u2019s Money","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: II Corinthians 9:1-15 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I received an interesting question from a brother in the Philippines, he wrote: \u201cHere in our country brethren depend on planting tobacco for income. One brother has asked me if it is good for the church to use the Lord\u2019s money to grow tobacco in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sermon&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2496,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-family-doesnt-want-the-brethren-involved-in-a-sisters-funeral-what-should-we-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":49687,"position":5},"title":"The family doesn&#8217;t want the brethren involved in a sister&#8217;s funeral. What should we do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, We had a sister in Christ who passed on.\u00a0 She was the mother and the only faithful Christian in her family. Her eldest son has strayed away from his promise to God. We tried to win him back but with no success. Now that his mother has\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49687","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=49687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}