Article - I Must Preach to the “Churched”
Through the years as I have written evangelistic articles and preached evangelistically to those of denominations, I have had some denominationalists tell me that I needed to preach to the “unchurched” instead of the “churched.” Three things the reader needs to consider: 1) After Paul made disciples of “unchurched” souls, he went back to these “churched” souls to strengthen them and encourage them to continue in the faith (Acts 14:21-22); 2) Most of the New Testament was addressed to “churched” people [for example, Romans was addressed to the “saints” in Rome (Romans 1:7; “Colossians” was addressed to the “saints” in Colosse who were instructed to read the letter among the “churched” as well as circulate among the church of Laodicea, Colossians 1:2; 4:15-16; and Revelation was written to the seven churches of Asia, Revelation 1:4)]; 3) The apostle Paul also made it a habit to go to “churched” people of other religions and encourage them to reject their religion(s)/tradition(s) and enter into the true, New Testament Christian faith (Acts 13:14; 14:1; 17:10, 17). I must preach to the “churched” souls who are part of the departure(s) foretold in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 (such as, the Catholic denomination, the Protestant denominations including the community-church denominations) because according to God’s righteous judgment, they are lost (1 Corinthians 1:10; 2 Timothy 2:16-18; 2 John 1:9-11). And I must preach to the “churched” souls of the churches of Christ because they can forfeit their salvation (Romans 16:16; Galatians 5:1-4; Hebrews 3:12; 6:4-8).
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