Featured Church discipline?

Jeff.....but what is the process for addressing the problem with the sinner? The church doesn't automatically excommunicate without investigating & trying to make it right with the offending individual correct? Nothing is done without the involvement of the sinner---ultimately its him or her that makes the choice & the ultimate goal is to correct & bring back to the fold.

 

It's not me fighting you on this one brother...a true church of Christ is one that is a community of believers all working together to glorify the Lord & with the ultimate goal to be sanctified. Too often today the church is not kept in its proper context and is not esteemed. A very sad state.

 

You take ever opportunity to distort anything that Old Union Brother or I say. That being true all I can say is that you are deliberately being contentious. I would expect such from Zaac but not from you. Frankly, it is very sad!

 

I have no idea what you use. i simply saw your response to the post by PJ!

 

Sissy, if I understand you correctly, you have a rather large church, and you are in a pretty big size town. So policing a bigger church maybe be a lot harder than a rural ORB church. My home church has 21 members, Brother Jeff's has around 100, or so, so policing it isn't as complicated, I guess.


TBS, the first step is to go to the offender alone. Now, most ORB churches are small(in regards to other bigger populated churches), and are in rural areas. News travels fast in these places....or let's just call a spade a spade....and rightfuly call it gossip. In the situation Brother OldRegular gave you, what that offender did, was already "widespread news", so someone going to them, and them alone, was already past and gone. The next step is to take one or two with you, and if they won't hear him, bring them before the church....but the whole church had already known about, seeing they were in the hospital. So, since they weren't able to go before the church due to their injuries running from the law, mind you, the church went to them, and gave them their chance, and they wouldn't go along with what they recommended, and excommunication was the only viable option left.

Listen, reconciliation should always be the first thing any local church should try to obtain. TBS, when someone, who was a professing christian, that bore corrupt fruit, who was offered the time to explain themselves before the church, and turns that opportunity down, has excluded themselves, imo.

If an allegation was thrown my way, I would call my Moderator PRONTO, and request a special meeting, and tell them what was said about me. I wouldn't want anything I did to bring reproach upon Little Martha, and especially the name of Jesus Christ.


When someone's shacked up with another, and they are supposed to be a christian, and they are "mum" about it, something's amiss.

 

Isn't being brought before the church part of the Biblical disciplining process whereby the person did not receive the counsel of one at first, then two, and then before the church?

If it is done in the correct Biblical order after the one on one and two, then BIBLICALLY he is to be brought before the church with the intent that he recognize the need for repentance.

If the church didn't go throught the process, then they are wrong.

 

If that is true, then the church is out of order and shouldn't very well expect to bring someone else into God's order if they are not operating in God's order.

And make amends for what? Did he wrong an individual in the church? This sounds kinda crazy. If he sinned against God, being brought before the Church is supposed to be about giving him the opportunity to repent and make amends with God where he wouldn't do so before.

But this seems to be the type of behavior you get from the church when certain sins and individuals are stigmatized.

 

In post #10 of the thread "unmarried Couples" I posted the following:

On the particular day the above occurred I was visiting the Church. I presented in the above post my understanding of the events that resulted in the exclusion of a member. Notice I did not mention the passage from Matthew dealing with church discipline. I did not mention the passage from 1 Corinthians dealing with Church discipline. I indicated above that I thought the action of the Church was appropriate. I still do about 40 years later.

It is very sad that there has been so much distortion and lies propagated about this simple story; I believe more than I recall about any other post on this Forum. Sadly one of the people whom I had come to respect over the years is the worst offender. In her latest remarks about me and the above incident [post #18 in response to convicted1] she tells the board the following:

Ann knows that is false. The question I have is why all the uproar by Ann. It is a mystery at least to me and perhaps to her.

 

You might look at post #13 and 14 of the thread "unmarried couples"!