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_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[448,173],"class_list":["post-68491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church","tag-family"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27184,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-treasury\/","url_meta":{"origin":68491,"position":0},"title":"The Church Treasury","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton Consider the following quote from a house-church denominationalist: It is true that the disciples were instructed to treasure up some things, \"And concerning the collection that [is] for the saints, as I directed to the assemblies of Galatia, so also ye -- do ye; on every\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":9553,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-it-be-wrong-to-accept-a-donation-from-a-non-member\/","url_meta":{"origin":68491,"position":1},"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":17152,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-family-wont-go-to-church-because-they-think-people-will-judge-them-for-not-attending-how-can-i-get-them-to-go-with-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":68491,"position":2},"title":"My family won’t go to church because they think people will judge them for not attending. How can I get them to go with me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question to ask you that I do not know how to fully answer.\u00a0 My family members are not convinced that going to church as a family is the best thing for the family. I believe that going to church is important especially as a family, but\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":68919,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-resolve-a-conflict-between-two-brethren\/","url_meta":{"origin":68491,"position":3},"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":[]},{"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":4},"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":92017,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-you-a-member-of-the-church-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":68491,"position":5},"title":"Why Are You a Member of the Church of Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Vance E. Trefethen via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 3, September 1992 A full-page ad for the book \"Why I Am a Member of the Church of Christ\" recently caught my eye, with its bold headline: \"Now Is the Time to Act.\" Much of the message carried in this conservative\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":[]}],"_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