Church Discipline

[Pastor David]

Does your church exercise church discipline? Does it follow the guidelines in Matthew 18? Would your church be willing to excommunicate an unrepentant sinner with the hopes they'd be restored? And are churches who "inflate" their roles and never purge their roles of people who have left acting Biblically?

 

[thegospelgeek]

Does your church exercise church discipline?

yes

Does it follow the guidelines in Matthew 18?

yes

Would your church be willing to excommunicate an unrepentant sinner with the hopes they'd be restored?

yes

And are churches who "inflate" their roles and never purge their roles of people who have left acting Biblically?

no

 

[drfuss]

Does your church exercise church discipline?
Staff Members - yes
Members - Seldom
Keep in mind our church has over 2000 in attendance each Sunday.

Does it follow the guidelines in Matthew 18?
Yes, when exercised.

Would your church be willing to excommunicate an unrepentant sinner with the hopes they'd be restored?
If excommumicate means drop from membership, it has little or no meaning or effect; since members (deserters) can stop attending the church for years and still be considered a member in good standing upon returning. Once you are a member, retaining your membership means very little. The church down the street would welcome you, so why not just go there.

And are churches who "inflate" their roles and never purge their roles of people who have left acting Biblically?
Definitely not acting Biblically; it is being dishonest and presents a false picture of the church.

 

[Pastor David]

Thanks for the replies.

drfuss,

Do you think that being an extremely large church can make exercising biblical church discipline difficult? If so, what would be some ways to adjust?

Also, I agree with your assessment of church membership. The "church down the street" should inquire into the perspective members church history to see if any issues need to be resolved.

 

[webdog]

Do you think that being an extremely large church can make exercising biblical church discipline difficult? If so, what would be some ways to adjust?

This is a good question. I think the adjustment would come from the strength of the leadership. Looking at the first mega-church (in Acts), I don't think they had much issue with church discipline due to the outstanding leadership given. Just a thought...

 

[annsni]

Does your church exercise church discipline?

yes

Does it follow the guidelines in Matthew 18?

yes

Would your church be willing to excommunicate an unrepentant sinner with the hopes they'd be restored?

Yes, and we have - even recently.

And are churches who "inflate" their roles and never purge their roles of people who have left acting Biblically?

No.

As for the larger churches, I think church discipline is as easy as it is in smaller churches. The important thing is for all the church members and attendees to be aware of the idea of Biblical discipline and for everyone to have some sort of contact with leaders in the church. This can be through small groups or other ministries. But Biblical church discipline should be carried out whenever it is necessary. To do anything else is to allow a cancer to grow through the body that will most likely affect the health of atleast many others. That is not a good thing.

 

[thegospelgeek]

I have no experiance with a mega-church, in fact the idea of a Free Will Baptist mega-church makes me laugh inside. Most of our churches are under 100 with many as small as 10 or so.

I would think that a mega-church would have to have someone in a relationship with it's members. I know a pastor can not know 2000 people but Associate Pastors, group leaders, etc should have that peronal contact with everyone. Discipline should be carried out in a Biblical fashion no matter the size of the church. Otherwise are they really a church?

 

[Jerome]

O that Christians were as eager to disciple as to "excommunicate" and purge".

 

[just-want-peace]

O that Christians were as eager to disciple as to "excommunicate" and purge".

An observation, if you will!

If there were more of the latter, might not there be more of the former?

One more thought that I just noticed -
DISCIPLE
DISCIPLINE!

Looks as if they both came from the same root, so they may be strongly dependent on each other.

 

[Marcia]

Does your church exercise church discipline? Does it follow the guidelines in Matthew 18? Would your church be willing to excommunicate an unrepentant sinner with the hopes they'd be restored? And are churches who "inflate" their roles and never purge their roles of people who have left acting Biblically?

Yes

Yes

Yes, but they wouldn't call it "excommunication," I don't think. Maybe more "putting out" the person in hopes he/she would repent.

Restoration comes after repentance. The person comes back to the church, repents, and goes through a process of restoration.

I don't know to the last question

 

[Marcia]

O that Christians were as eager to disciple as to "excommunicate" and purge".

I have a feeling that churches that don't disciple don't confront and excommunicate, either. A church that does either of these is likely doing the other because it is based on following the Bible.

 

[Pastor David]

Thanks for all the responses. It is encouraging to read where churches are trying to care for their own through discipline. And yes - disciple and discipline are very similar indeed!

 

[drfuss]

Thanks for the replies.



Do you think that being an extremely large church can make exercising biblical church discipline difficult? If so, what would be some ways to adjust?
It depends on the type of offenses you are talking about.

If it is consistency in the laymen's Christian living, it would be very difficult to know the private lives of individuals unless there is some sort of behavior police force which encourages people to report on each other. Of course that would be very bad.

On the other hand, if a member is considered a trouble maker because of publically questioning and complaining about the church or the Pastor, it is not hard to observe that. These type of laymen are generally ignored by most of us and have little effect on the church because it is so large and most prople don't even know them. After being ignored, they usually attend another church for a while. After a few years, many come back as members in good standing since Baptist don't update their rolls even though they have deserted the church for a few years.

Our constitution and bylaws provide for the deacons (about 90 men) to be the final authority on all personnel issues. A few years ago, we had a church employee challenge being dismissed for publically complaining. The issue went before the Deacons for resolution.

In our large church, there are a number of different points of view concerning interpretations of scripture. There is no pressure to have to agree with the Pastor. If this was not permitted, the church would not be large for very long.


Also, I agree with your assessment of church membership. The "church down the street" should inquire into the perspective members church history to see if any issues need to be resolved.

We are located in a metropolitan area with many churches. IMO, the days of churches questioning incoming members coming to the larger churches are over.

 

[sag38]

You know, I follow God's word when dealing with an unrpentent church member. But, I have been tempted to go take an adulterer (espeically a loud mouth unrepentent dad) and beat the tar out of him. The arrogance of some that I've dealt with is appalling.

 

[donnA]

Does your church exercise church discipline? Does it follow the guidelines in Matthew 18? Would your church be willing to excommunicate an unrepentant sinner with the hopes they'd be restored? And are churches who "inflate" their roles and never purge their roles of people who have left acting Biblically?

yes

yes

yes

no

 

[Tom Butler]

.....they wouldn't call it "excommunication," I don't think. Maybe more "putting out" the person in hopes he/she would repent.

The proper way to put it is, withdraw fellowship, disfellowship. I've also heard it called "churching," but more as a colloquial term. Excommunicating is not a Baptist word.

 

[Pastor David]

The proper way to put it is, withdraw fellowship, disfellowship. I've also heard it called "churching," but more as a colloquial term. Excommunicating is not a Baptist word.

Tom,

You might also include "shunning" which is the practice in many anabaptist fellowships. But you're right to say that the word "excommunication" is not well-known in Baptist ciricles. But in reading and studying denominations who do use this term, I feel it best describes what takes place when a person is "disfellowshipped". Excommunication simply means to be taken out of communion - or fellowship. Ex = "out of" / Communion = "fellowship". It is a term that is coming into more use in the Reformed Baptist circles more so than the wider Baptist church. But is means essentially the same thing as "disfellowship" and so on.

Blessings,

 

[Todd W. White]

Does your church exercise church discipline?

Yes.

Does it follow the guidelines in Matthew 18?

Yes.

Would your church be willing to excommunicate an unrepentant sinner with the hopes they'd be restored?

That's the main purpose of Church Discipline - RESTORATION. It is NEVER to be used as punishment (Gal. 6:1).

And are churches who "inflate" their roles and never purge their roles of people who have left acting Biblically?

No.

In fact , most pastors are probably so happy to get rid of trouble-makers that they fail to tell the church the trouble-makers went to what happened, so they sow seeds of discord there, too.

I have always sent a letter informing the pastor of the other church of what the trouble-maker did, what I believe his/her spiritual needs are, how I tried to help them in those areas, and, in addition to warning him how to avoid problems with that person, I encourage him to try to help them instead of failing, as I did.

To pawn folks off on another church just to get "shed" of them is wrong, in my view.

So is having hyper-inflated roll books.

 

[Tom Butler]

Tom,

You might also include "shunning" which is the practice in many anabaptist fellowships. But you're right to say that the word "excommunication" is not well-known in Baptist ciricles. But in reading and studying denominations who do use this term, I feel it best describes what takes place when a person is "disfellowshipped". Excommunication simply means to be taken out of communion - or fellowship. Ex = "out of" / Communion = "fellowship". It is a term that is coming into more use in the Reformed Baptist circles more so than the wider Baptist church. But is means essentially the same thing as "disfellowship" and so on.

Blessings,

You and I both understand what we mean by excommunication. But to the RC church, for instance, it means something else entirely. It means to deny them communion, to deny them the sacraments--in essence to cut them off from salvation.

That's the only reason I suggest care in the use of excommunication as a synonym for disfellowshipping.

 

[Thinkingstuff]

You and I both understand what we mean by excommunication. But to the RC church, for instance, it means something else entirely. It means to deny them communion, to deny them the sacraments--in essence to cut them off from salvation.

That's the only reason I suggest care in the use of excommunication as a synonym for disfellowshipping.

I thought it meant exclusion from fellowship.