your stance that the Bible does not specifically provide for it<\/a>, why do you have a website and email for your church? Also, why do you have a Facebook page?\u00a0 Is not a Facebook page, if used the way Facebook is intended to be used, extremely similar to a ‘fellowship hall’?<\/p>\nThanks for your time.<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
Whenever a command is given, it sets limits. The command excludes certain things and includes others. It is much like the Venn diagrams we did in math classes. Some commands overlap, such as both individuals and the church offering up worship to God.<\/p>\n
The church is commanded to spread the gospel. “So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places<\/em>” (Ephesians 3:10). This spreading of the Gospel can be done in a variety of ways: verbal or written; it is the communication that is being emphasized. Thus, the church supports preaching and teaching of the message in sermons, preaching in other areas of the world, Bible classes, articles, etc. The website is one aspect of this, as is the church’s Facebook page. All you will find on either medium are teachings about the Bible and on rare occasions announcements about changes to the assembly times.<\/p>\nLike most congregations, we have a mailbox, a phone, as well as email to communicate with people. These are used to set up Bible studies and hold Bible studies with people I cannot physically be present with. But these are still being used under the command to spread the gospel.<\/p>\n
Fellowship halls are used for socializing, especially for people eating together. Having common meals together is something authorized by God for individual Christians (Acts 2:46), but where is the command that it is required of the church to provide a facility for social gatherings? I can see in Acts 6 that the church provided food for widows and I Timothy 5 tells us that it was restricted to only certain widows who had no other family to care for them. None of these cover the typical use of a fellowship hall.<\/p>\n
Notice also that your line of reasoning doesn’t work. You are trying to find an exception to one rule so as to claim there can be exceptions to all rules.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I’m not even saying I want to have or like having a fellowship hall, but given\u00a0your stance that the Bible does not specifically provide for it, why do you have a website and email for your church? Also, why do you have a Facebook page?\u00a0 Is not a Facebook page, if used the way…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","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":[127,78,151,593,1361,451],"class_list":["post-54920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-about-this-site","tag-authority","tag-eating-in-the-building","tag-fellowship-hall","tag-social-media","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19698,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-shouldnt-write-against-having-kitchens-and-fellowship-halls-since-these-arent-important-to-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":54920,"position":0},"title":"You shouldn’t write against having kitchens and fellowship halls since these aren’t important to salvation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I stumbled across your web site and found some very valuable information that may help me in the future. I disagree, however, with one of your beliefs. Having a kitchen or a potluck at the church building is not wrong. The church building is just that -- a building.\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":61320,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/notes-on-buildings-assembly-halls-and-fellowship-halls\/","url_meta":{"origin":54920,"position":1},"title":"Notes on Buildings, Assembly Halls, and Fellowship Halls","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 10, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Assemblies The church is commanded to come together for the purpose of worship and encouragement - I Corinthians 11:18, 20, 33; Hebrews 10:25 The purpose of coming together as a church is specifically separated from eating meals - I Corinthians 11:22, 34 Fellowship Fellowship is a state of being. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Notes","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5718,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-i-corinthian-1133-allow-fellowship-meals-at-the-church-building\/","url_meta":{"origin":54920,"position":2},"title":"Does I Corinthian 11:33 allow fellowship meals at the church building?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Brother in Christ, \u00a0 I read your answer to Why is eating in the building an issue?\u00a0concerning eating in the building and have a few questions. \u00a0 First, you quote I Corinthians 11:17-22 where Paul is remonstrating the Corinthians for leaving some hungry and for some getting drunk\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":68242,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-fellowship-halls-optional\/","url_meta":{"origin":54920,"position":3},"title":"Are fellowship halls optional?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning, brother Jeffrey: I have had several discussions with an elder of a church of Christ. First, the issue of fellowship halls. I sent him the article entitled \"Kitchens and Fellowship Halls, What Was the Issue?\" His response was because the early church met in homes for worship\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":46511,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/fellowship-halls-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":54920,"position":4},"title":"Fellowship Halls (Longhenry)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ethan R. Longhenry It has become popular among many religious organizations and denominational churches to build and maintain a facility as part of their property which is used to facilitate the sharing of meals. Sometimes such facilities are considered a \"multipurpose area\" that might be used for meals, meetings,\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":54072,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/in-regards-to-fellowship-halls-it-seems-you-gave-two-different-answers\/","url_meta":{"origin":54920,"position":5},"title":"In regards to fellowship halls, it seems you gave two different answers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was reading through some of your questions and answers regarding\u00a0fellowship halls. I'm a little confused. In\u00a0one post about the subject, someone asked if they could still worship as long as they didn't attend the meal. The answer was yes and Revelation 3:4 was cited. In\u00a0a different question, someone\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\/54920","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=54920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}