Kitchens and Fellowship Halls: What Was the Issue?<\/a>). But at the same time, you tell me that a group that does have a kitchen “strictly adheres to biblical teachings.” You can’t have it both ways.<\/p>\nYes, congregations should have elders, deacons, preachers, and teachers (Ephesians 4:11), but congregations do exist without them at times. You can’t just have people hold the titles. A congregation needs good, qualified people. If they don’t exist, that isn’t necessarily the congregation’s fault. For instance, it took La Vista over 40 years to have two or more men qualified to be elders simply because people moved in and out of the area so often.<\/p>\n
You left the congregation because they are struggling. Instead of helping them grow, you added to their problems. You state that the men aren’t teaching sound doctrine, but while you were attending there, your husband was one of the men.<\/p>\n
I don’t know the congregation or the problems, and I don’t know if the problems are solvable. Not attending worship at all doesn’t make you a better Christian.<\/p>\n
I know good people among the congregations that refer to themselves as “mainstream.” However, I also have seen congregations that compromise on some issues slide further from the truth over time. The poor reasoning that allows them to have kitchens and fellowship halls leads to compromises on other issues. It doesn’t happen overnight, but you can see the progression.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hello, I’m facing a dilemma and seek guidance to do the right thing. My husband and I used to attend the only church in our area that lacks a kitchen. We stopped going because the preacher left, there are no elders, and the men currently leading the church are not biblically sound in their…<\/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":[448,594],"class_list":["post-69119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church","tag-kitchen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3750,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-church-organize-tasks-without-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":69119,"position":0},"title":"Can a church organize tasks without elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I would like your thoughts on organizing works in a church that does not have the luxury of elders, such as visitors,\u00a0 attendance,\u00a0 sick members, evangelism. Can men be appointed or volunteer to serve as leaders over these areas with an assistant? Wouldn't this make these areas offices?\u00a0 Do\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":28918,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-is-in-charge-the-preacher-or-the-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":69119,"position":1},"title":"Who is in charge, the preacher or the elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Jeff, I'm forced to ask this question: between the ministers and the elders, who is in charge of a local congregation? Where that I am, there is a serious power tussle between the two. The ministers say, since they teach the men to become elders and also ordain\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":18857,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-should-business-meetings-be-conducted\/","url_meta":{"origin":69119,"position":2},"title":"How should business meetings be conducted?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have no elders at our small congregation. Do you have information available on the workings of these meetings and its rules? What authority its president has versus its preacher? This probably a funny question to ask, but we do need some advice. Answer: It is clear in 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":54626,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-appoints-men-to-be-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":69119,"position":3},"title":"Who appoints men to be preachers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you very much for helping not just me but also the churches where there is a slight misunderstanding on this Evangelist subject. Please bear with me in coming to you again, for I want to understand clearly. You said in\u00a0Preachers: Ordination The idea of ordination is to choose\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":25118,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-elders-responsible-for-the-employment-of-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":69119,"position":4},"title":"Are elders responsible for the employment of preachers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I enjoyed and appreciated your article on\u00a0the work of the evangelist.\u00a0 I find it quite different from many by what you might consider institutional churches of Christ. I am concerned about the final paragraph on the selection of the minister.\u00a0 As I understand first-century history,\u00a0 many preachers were involved\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":92639,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/churches-preparing-for-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":69119,"position":5},"title":"Churches Preparing for Elders","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Don Bunting via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 2, February 2015 If a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country (Matthew 13:57), then it should not surprise us that it is difficult for churches to appoint and submit to elders. While we may dream about qualified men\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\/69119","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=69119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}