by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
It is easy to get caught up in a cycle of negativity and pull away from a scriptural church of Christ. It is also possible to go back and correct things both with God and His people. Jesus died for His church (Acts 20:28). He asks us to help His church wherever we can. Staying away from a scriptural church is not an option. Paul, by the Spirit, told the Ephesian elders to “shepherd” (take care of) the church of God which He purchased with His own blood”. The members are to “build one another up in the most holy faith<\/em>” and “speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs<\/em>” and “commune” with each other in the memorial Supper (I Corinthians 10-11). You cannot purposely neglect these responsibilities and remain right with God. Can you hear Him? He is saying, “I know they are not perfect people, and neither are you, but I gave my blood to help save them. The least you can do is help encourage them.”<\/p>\n Many will be held accountable for letting churches die out because they were not willing to give of themselves to the Lord’s work of holding up the cross for one another, much less for the world. Jesus wants you to start over, repent, ask for forgiveness, and get to work, helping a local scriptural church grow both spiritually, with a stronger faith, and in numbers. I remember starting a local church in our home with one other family, and soon we needed a larger meeting facility. God blesses effort. He does not bless non-effort!<\/p>\n If you fell away from Christ’s church, it is time to get back right with God and His people. Time is running out. Don’t live in regret that you helped a church die. Get the life of Jesus back in you and help bring spiritual life back into a dying congregation. That is your mission for the rest of your time here. Don’t delay! Now is the time!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton It is easy to get caught up in a cycle of negativity and pull away from a scriptural church of Christ. It is also possible to go back and correct things both with God and His people. Jesus died for His church (Acts 20:28). He asks us to help His church…<\/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":[27],"tags":[794,1308],"class_list":["post-94646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-criticism","tag-falling-away"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27508,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-right-for-a-church-to-raise-money-for-a-preacher-school-or-to-have-leaders-instead-of-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":94646,"position":0},"title":"Is it right for a church to raise money for a preacher school or to have leaders instead of elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a concern over a recent request from a brethren who is a church leader of the congregation where I was baptized years before. He was asking me to help financially support the church planting mission being undertaken by the missionary training academy established by the congregation over\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":29544,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-a-conflict-of-interest-if-a-man-is-both-a-preacher-and-an-elder-or-deacon\/","url_meta":{"origin":94646,"position":1},"title":"Is there a conflict of interest if a man is both a preacher and an elder or deacon?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question that I am struggling with. I can't find any scriptural reasons against what has been done at our local church but still have an uneasiness about it. We have a smaller church whose membership has been trending down the past several years since our minister\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":38923,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-missionary-work-scriptural\/","url_meta":{"origin":94646,"position":2},"title":"Is missionary work scriptural?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Mr. Hamilton, What is \"missionary work\" and is that scriptural? Does God call us to a particular occupation, such as God has \"called me\" to this career or that career? Is all this scripturally sound? Thank you. Answer: Missionary work has come to mean going to foreign countries 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":[]},{"id":83642,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-nature-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":94646,"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":2327,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-the-churches-of-christ-insist-that-their-name-is-scriptural\/","url_meta":{"origin":94646,"position":4},"title":"Why do the churches of Christ insist that their name is scriptural?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why does the \"Church of Christ\" insist that their name is scriptural when it cannot be found anywhere in the Bible? The church is referred to as the \"church of God\" eight times in the Bible, but never is it called the \"church of Christ.\" The verse they use\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":27184,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-treasury\/","url_meta":{"origin":94646,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94646","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=94646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}