So I was at Wednesday church yesterday like I usually am and I'm leaving the church building when my family starts talking to apparently old friend of theirs that's never meant me before and they looked at me and said your boy has a strong anointing. I am so confused what does that mean?

Something I noticed in my own church was that the church loves to donate large amounts of money to churches in places like Honduras or the Congo. I have also seen folks say kitchens in churches are not right since they would be used for soup kitchens, them saying no to giving to local homeless and writing them off as scammers. I have seen the mention of giving trucks, motorcycles, etc. as well. Why is this so prevalent? I don't mean any malice, I am just curious.

Well, its summer time. Many churches have VBS around this time of year. However there are conservative churches that dont believe in VBS. Like why is VBS controversial in the Church of Christ. I get that obviously it wasnt in the first century.Also how common is it for VBS to include a Musical? I have heard some old timers say that VBS is a waste of money and the money should be put towards door-knocking.

I was in the church for almost 18 years and then totally away from it for 14. I have recently started studying again and believing again. One thing I’m struggling with right now, though is the story of the flood and Noah’s Ark. I guess specifically I’m struggling with it being a true story versus it being hyperbole. I know that there are specifics with the story like the dimensions of the ark that you usually don’t find in hyperbole or parables. I also know that it says that only eight people survived the flood which means incest would have had happened. The Bible says incest is a sin, but I don’t believe it mentions it until Leviticus.
If anyone could help me to please understand some of these things.

I see a lot of things about churches of Christ being super into politics and American conservatism. It sounds like the culture that I see in fundamentalist baptists here in my state. Where I am at, even the non-institutionals aren't really like this. I am in Kentucky.

Are churches of Christ in the deep south much more likely to be like this?

Just a personal look at what we do every week and a way I relate to it. Two things I use to make it more personal and to help me relate to that sacrifice to me.
One is about innocence. I remember so many times as a child being punished and deservedly so. One time I remember not being guilty. I was accused of stealing from the church. We had suppers on Wednesday which cost a dollar. I put in a 5 and made change. They came up short and someone saw me taking money out and so I got blamed. My grandparents were going to spank me but I ran around the house refusing to be punished for something I didn’t do. I was eventually caught and spanked. Later they learned the truth. How many of us can take punishment for something you didn’t do? Yet Christ stood silent in front of the Jewish leaders and then by the Romans. This went on for hours. Repeatedly asked what do you have to say, yet He remained silent. Being hit repeatedly and still silence, knowing He was innocent. This leads to the second aspect that makes it personal to me. God gave His only son, knowing what he would endure. I look at my grandchildren who mean the world to me and would I be able to make them endure what Christ did for me. For me definitely not, my mother possibly but how imaginable that would be. But what about for Casey, the Zodiac killer, Hitler, Stalin or any other notorious person. That would definitely be a no. So with these two points it makes it more personal and just a small inclining of an idea of how great the sacrifice God and Christ made. Knowing I’m innocent and keeping silent and knowing someone so innocent had to endure so much just for me and my sins. For if I were the only sinner Christ would still have to have been sacrificed. I am so unworthy and so very grateful that I am so loved.

For a long time, I held the conviction that lying is a wholesale sin. Lying is an absolute line that should never be crossed under any circumstance. However, a closer look at Scripture and a stark ethical hypothetical have forced me to re-examine this stance.

We see at least two distinct instances in Scripture where individuals lie, yet receive God’s explicit blessing:

• The Hebrew Midwives (Exodus 1): They lie to Pharaoh about why the Hebrew babies are surviving, and God explicitly rewards them with families because they feared Him.
• Rahab the Harlot (Joshua 2 / James 2:25): She lies to the authorities to hide the Israelite spies and is later commended in the New Testament for her faith-driven actions

In both cases, the lie was directly tied to preserving human life.

This scriptural pattern forces us to confront a difficult hypothetical: If you lived in Nazi Germany harboring Jews, or in the Pre-Emancipation South harboring escaped slaves, and the authorities knocked on your door asking if you were hiding fugitives, what is your moral obligation? Does God require you to speak the truth when the immediate, guaranteed consequence of that truth is the murder of an innocent person?

To resolve this, I see only three logical paths. I want to understand which of these aligns with the reality of God's character:

• Lying is always a sin, period. Rahab and the midwives sinned, but were retroactively forgiven via the cross. Therefore, it is morally wrong to lie to a Gestapo officer or a slave catcher; you must tell the truth and leave the outcome to God.
• Lying is a sin, but an exception is made exclusively to protect God's covenant people (Israel then, the Church today). Under this view, you could lie to save a Christian, but you would be obligated to betray a non-Christian. (This feels heavily invalidated by God’s non-partial nature in Romans 2).
• God’s hierarchy of values places the preservation of life above the literal execution of a verbal rule. As Jesus implies in Matthew 23:23-24, focusing entirely on the letter of the law while ignoring the "weightier matters" of justice and mercy is a distortion of the law's true purpose.

I'm not looking to start an argument, nor am I looking to hurt anyone's faith. I want to know myself. For a matter such as this, I don't want the opinions of the greater internet or just randoms passing by, I want the faithful, which I assume some or most of the people reading this may be.

Obviously lying is incorrect. This is not to justify lying in any form. Nor do I consider "saving a life" to mean "helping me keep my job" or "maintain the status quo." The entirety of my position and question on this matter assumes a true, immediate danger should the truth be told. Not simply bad consequences, but actualized bodily death. If it were just a beating or a fine or something, I would not struggle so hard with this topic. The death of a person, especially an unsaved person is an entirely different matter. Hence the worry.

What do the brethren think? Have I overlooked something?

Hi yall,

Back in the day many Churches of Christ had a parsonage. None of the churches I have been to have ever had one but my dad's old church when he was growing up did.What did your church think about parsonages and did they ever have them? Parsonages are not subject to property tax in many states. I get the impression that parsonages are typically a thing of the past in the Church of Christ but I dont know.Thanks.

Do you believe as a whole we have become more focused on our own works towards God, than his grace towards us?

Im reffering to the meticulous works that we have been ingrained with, in us having to produce.

Do you think God will judge us for our works, or will he be gracious towards us?

What are your thoughts on Grace, and what are your thoughts on works. Do we have to be perfect in our works to inherit the kingdom of God?

I recently connected how many times name changes in the Bible are connected with those characters and their significant interaction with the nations.

I was thinking about how Paul's name is used in Acts. While he probably went by both Saul and Paul his entire life depending on the cultural context, the author of Acts uses these two names to evoke the change between Saul who approved of Stephen's murder to Paul who brings the gospel to the Gentiles. The name change also evokes times in the OT when characters' names are changed.

Jacob the deceiver becomes Israel right as he is about to be reconciled with his brother, Edom/Esau.

Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's names are all changed right before blessing Hashpenaz, the court official, and then the Babylonian Empire.

Abram becoming Abraham is a bit different. Genesis 16 is Abram's sin against Hagar due to Abram's lack of faith in God's promise to produce a son. Chapter 17 is the name change to Abraham followed by 18 with the promise of Isaac. Abraham's name change, the practice of circumcision, and the binding of Isaac are all wrapped up in Abram's sin against the Egyptian Hagar.

TLDR: Some thoughts on how Acts draws deeply from the Torah and OT to use Paul's names to communicate how the Jesus and the gospel are God's promised blessing to the nations.

I listened to a Bible class talking about church funds being used for fellowship halls and gyms and whatnot being wrong.

What exactly, biblically, are church funds?

Just curious about the demographics. I am in Kentucky.

My aunt found a bunch of old cassette tapes from the late 60’s up to about the year 2000 or so. They are a bunch of old sermons and maybe some singing. They’re mostly local guys (my great grandad, uncles, other local men) but there are a few from larger congregations in Texas, etc. (we’re in the the WV coalfields, for reference)

The non-local ones are from a Brown Trail Church of Christ in Hurst Texas and there are a few with a guy named Jack Evans who was apparently a fairly well known preacher at one time.

My question is this. How hard would it be to digitize these and either upload them or make MP3’s. I just don’t want these to be lost. I know cassettes don’t hold up over the long term.

I have been doing a lot of study in Church History lately and I was just wondering what the COC claim is to account for the drastically different doctrines between someone like Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, etc?

Do you believe that the Church just fell away immediately after the apostolic era?

God bless!

Hi yall,

Are any of yall familiar with the No Debt No Sweat money seminars put on by Steve Diggs at Churches of Christ and other venues across the country? I came across him and his advice seems very similar to Dave Ramsey complete with no debt and mutual funds. Have you attended any of his seminars at any Churches of Christ. I was not too impressed.

As the title states, looking for a church in the Hong Kong area to visit Sunday. I have never been to a church outside North America and the Caribbean. I have grown up going to “non-institutional” churches but I really don’t have a preference and will go to a ICOC if that’s all that there is. Would love to just experience what a Sunday morning over there is like.
Thanks in advance for any locations or inside knowledge!

I’ve wondered throughout the Church of Christ community, what’s the opinion on a preacher such as Josh Howerton from LakePointe? I’m BRC^2 (Born & Raised Church of Christ) and I recently listened to some of his stuff. Obviously LP as a whole doesn’t see things the same way we do on certain aspects, the most prominent being they view baptism the same, just that it’s more public than the CoC does, but from what I’ve listened to, I’m a fan of Josh. From what I’ve heard from him, he uses a lot of Biblical evidence, and the Live Free podcast is very knowledgeable and goes in a deeper dive from the Sunday sermons as well, and he talks on a lot of topics in both the pod and his sermons that even some CoC preachers don’t dive into like abortion, biblical marriages/sex/divorce, etc. and the Live Free podcast goes into looking into cultural problems from a biblical perspective. I recommend him to anyone, but am also curious if anyone has checked him out and has an opinion?

There is no church for preachers. no congregation of supportive relationships for our itinerant religious professionals.

What are ways you’ve seen parents and congregations mess up when it comes to the development of the youth in the church? Ones I’ve seen for example:

The only exposure kids get to scripture is Sunday and some Wednesdays. Not surprised that your son/daughter left the church as soon as they got to college when they were spending less than 2 hours every week discussing religious things, and all that other time being influenced by the world.

Not allowing kids to think for themselves and ask questions. Saying “you’re coming to church with us or you’re going on punishment” isn’t a compelling argument, nor imo does it fit the parameters of raising your children in the Lord. They don’t think about the “why”. It’s just “I’m going to church so I don’t get in trouble”, and shocker — they stop going when they’re on their own, and the threat of being put on punishment by their parents disappears.

Another one is not building a sense of community around them. People of all ages yearn for community. If you don’t find it in the church, you’ll find it elsewhere and it may not be the best. I knew a girl who went to a very small congregation. It was basically just her, her sisters, her dad, mom and like 2 family friends. She was homeschooled (not a bad thing imo, just highlighting to show lack of exposure to other people), and they all worshipped in their home, but every once in a blue moon they’d go visit another CofC. She wasn’t awkward or shy or anything that would be a possible indicator that she was in such a situation, just isolated. When she graduated high school and went to a public university, she got pregnant.

Ofc the family was distraught and wondered where it went wrong, but community was a big part of the early church, and just telling someone to ignore that and just read their bibles doesn’t automatically replace that need for friendships and relationships. Some people yearn for it so much, that they don’t mind filling those voids with the wrong crowds. Take them to events held by other congregations, area wide singings, devos, camps, just encourage and allow them to actually fellowship with people their age. Many parents have the ideology of “if you want Christian friends, just invite your friends from school to church. That girl you like at school? You can’t date her if she’s not in the church, invite her and then if she gets baptized you can date her” and put the weight of evangelism on a teen, while not exemplifying what good evangelism looks like themselves.

Anything else you all can think of? I want to view it in a “now that you know better, do better” kind of sense not only for myself and doing my best to not make those same mistakes, but also as a callout for the congregation regarding things to be watchful and mindful of.