Greetings Brother Hamilton,<\/p>\n
I trust your worship service went well today. Please, I need your guidance on these matters:<\/p>\n
Forgive my disturbance. I am new to the work of the church, and these things are beginning to come up. I just need guidance to have a standard, principles, and pattern to work with as a young preacher.<\/p>\n
Thank you, sir, and happy Lord’s Day.<\/p>\n\t
A preacher’s duty revolves around teaching God’s word to those outside and within the church. He does not run the church. He teaches the members how to live in accordance with God’s standards.<\/p>\n
A church is a family whose members are related by their spiritual birth instead of physical lineage. What happens in a family when a member dies, or a child is born? I would expect the members to act similarly as if one of their physical family died or had a child. There are no strict rules because much of this is cultural. The church has no responsibility as a church, but its members are responsible for showing love and concern for their fellow members. The same can be said about critical illness, moving, or some disaster. Members should pray for each other and see that the needs of members are met. “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,\u00a0contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality<\/em>” (Romans 12:10-13). See\u00a0Individual or Church?<\/a><\/p>\n A congregation only raises its money through voluntary donations given on the first day of the week (I Corinthians 16:1-2). If money is received on some other day, it is added to the next Sunday’s contributions. There is no building committee in the Bible. There are no chairmen or secretaries. As a preacher, I avoid getting involved in the collection of funds so that it does not appear that I’m making money off the church.<\/p>\n The church decides how visitors are handled. As a preacher, I encourage the members to be hospitable and friendly. I try to meet each visitor, but other members also meet them. If they are from the community, I try to set up a time to meet and talk about what the church is about. At this congregation, we usually try to get a visitor’s mailing address, and then several members write to thank the person for coming to services.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\t Okay, sir. Thank you so much for your great insight into this. I am highly grateful for your time, patience, and understanding. May God continue to give you the grace to continue the good you have been doing.<\/p>\n Best regards.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Greetings Brother Hamilton, I trust your worship service went well today. Please, I need your guidance on these matters: What can the church do when someone in the church dies? How should the church go about it? I need a procedure. In other words, how can the church take responsibility? Child Birth: How can…<\/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":[448,173],"class_list":["post-68491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church","tag-family"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92681,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-children-be-bringing-food-donations-to-the-front-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":68491,"position":0},"title":"Should children be bringing food donations to the front of the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am hoping you can help us with some insight into a situation happening in our local body. During the worship service, during the time of offering, the children of the congregation are invited to come up and donate food items to the church's pantry. Many members of\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":29230,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-for-an-institution-to-ask-for-donations\/","url_meta":{"origin":68491,"position":1},"title":"Is it wrong for an institution to ask for donations?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Is it okay for organizations such as GBN TV to ask for donations publicly? Is anything wrong with this? This organization is run by members of the Lord's church. I do not think anything is wrong with this, but I do think it would be wrong if 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":9553,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-it-be-wrong-to-accept-a-donation-from-a-non-member\/","url_meta":{"origin":68491,"position":2},"title":"Would it be wrong to accept a donation from a non-member?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I do need some advice concerning donations. We are working with our community by giving away clothes, books, etc.. that are in fairly good condition to those who are in need. We do not require any money from them to purchase it, but I was wondering if they are\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":83642,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-nature-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":68491,"position":3},"title":"The Nature of the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by R. L. Whiteside via Gospel Advocate, December 3, 1942 From what reading I do, it seems to me that brethren are drifting away from a correct conception of what the church is. The church of God is the family of God, and all his children are in it. If\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":61067,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-i-am-a-member-of-the-church-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":68491,"position":4},"title":"Why I am a Member of the Church of Christ","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 29, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Irvin Himmel via\u00a0The Voice of West End, Vol. 5, No. 23, Feb. 16, 1964. People have offered a variety of reasons for their religious connections. I am here to present my reasons for being a member of the church of Christ; but, first, some negative thoughts: Not because of\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":68919,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-resolve-a-conflict-between-two-brethren\/","url_meta":{"origin":68491,"position":5},"title":"How do we resolve a conflict between two brethren?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings sir. I trust you have been doing well. I have a matter that needs your advice on dealing with conflict resolution. I have these two brethren who had a misunderstanding over a report on the church building project. They belong to the team overseeing the project. One is\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":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68491","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=68491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Response:<\/h2>\n