Hello,<\/p>\n
I understand elders make decisions to run the day-to-day operations of the congregation. If they cannot show a scriptural reason for not allowing a male member to preach, can they prohibit him from preaching? While it can always be said, “Not enough knowledge,” how does that not become a way of “censoring” certain lessons that meet the biblical mold to preach but not the elder’s mold? What can or should be done about this censorship?<\/p>\n\t
Elders oversee a congregation’s spiritual growth and faithfulness, dealing with both the individual members and the congregation as a whole. They are not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of a congregation, which are usually the duties of deacons. Elders often decide who will address the congregation. They are charged with keeping false teachings from being presented, so that would be a form of censorship.<\/p>\n
If the elders think you need more maturity before presenting lessons to the congregation, then that is their choice. There is far more to preaching than presenting lessons from the pulpit. Get out and teach people. Hold Bible studies. Offer to fill in for other congregations in the region. Study the Bible to grow your knowledge.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hello, I understand elders make decisions to run the day-to-day operations of the congregation. If they cannot show a scriptural reason for not allowing a male member to preach, can they prohibit him from preaching? While it can always be said, “Not enough knowledge,” how does that not become a way of “censoring” certain…<\/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":[1688,123,1511],"class_list":["post-70562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-censorship","tag-elders","tag-preachers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68309,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-arent-the-elders-helping-me-to-learn-to-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":70562,"position":0},"title":"Why aren’t the elders helping me to learn to preach?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I hope this email finds you doing well. I have a question. I finally got to preach and teach for a month in another congregation. I asked the elders in my church to attend one day and give me pointers. One finally attended, but all the elders said that\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":88265,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-need-to-go-to-school-to-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":70562,"position":1},"title":"Do I need to go to school to preach?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Mr. Hamilton, I have studied the Bible all my life. I read everything I can. I preached for three weeks a year ago in a local congregation and asked all my elders to attend, and one did. He asked me if I wanted to teach in our congregation. I\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":31598,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-should-an-elder-do-if-no-other-elders-left-in-the-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":70562,"position":2},"title":"What should an elder do if no other elders left in the congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If you have three elders in the church and two elders resigned, what is the function of the elder who is left? He still has a continuing desire to shepherd the flock and the rest of the congregation has no grievance with him. Answer: A man can preach without\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":52500,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-stay-with-this-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":70562,"position":3},"title":"Should we stay with this congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Having moved about, my wife and I have worshiped with many congregations that follow the New Testament pattern. Currently, we are visiting a congregation that has a part-time minister and one elder. How this came about is murky. As our options are very limited, we have visited for several\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":62140,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-should-i-share-the-pulpit\/","url_meta":{"origin":70562,"position":4},"title":"When should I share the pulpit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 12, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings to you, sir, I trust you have been doing well with your family. I have this concern bothering me. As a preacher, I understand that at some point I will have to share the pulpit with others, but at what point should that be? I have some who\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":58592,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-really-dont-want-to-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":70562,"position":5},"title":"I really don’t want to preach","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Sir, Firstly, I would like to thank you for all your time and effort to put up all this material. I have been reading your questions and answers for a while now, and it helps a lot. It has come a time now, that I would write to\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\/70562","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=70562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}