Today I will begin with a quote from the Mennonite
confession: "We believe that the practice of discipline in the church is a
sign of God's offer of forgiveness and transforming grace to believers who are
moving away from the faithful discipleship or who have been overtaken by
sin." While seemingly simple, this
complex statement is powerful for us today because we are in a place where we
do not like correction (what correction?
You are right and I am right, because what is right for you is
not what is right for me!); we do not like to be called to obedience; we hate
to be called sinful; we certainly don't appreciate some community not
understanding my story and judging us - in fact they don't know us!
As a pastor, I have heard all of the above before from a multitude
of different sources. And in some cases,
I do side with the person giving those excuses because in many ways, church has
gotten church discipline wrong. So let's
unpack "church discipline."
First, church discipline is a corrective action meant to help a
believer follow Jesus better.
Church discipline is a forgiving, redeeming, and renewing process meant
to helpfully guide someone in the church back to following Christ. For example, someone who is committing
adultery would be disciplined by church leadership with some of the following:
being removed from leadership for a time of seeking and focusing on God, being
encouraged and helped in the process of reconciliation with their wife
including ending the affair, having some spiritual disciplines suggested, and
being mentored by an elder or pastor during this process.
However, the tricky part (and scary part for leadership!) is
that if the discipline is approached in less than a loving manner (and even in
a loving manner), the person being disciplined can easily and swiftly
move on to the next church. Therefore,
church discipline is a two way street: both parties need to act upon and desire
to be reconciled to Christ for it to work.
Both parties need to be committed to each other.
Second, church discipline as been abused. The amount of stories I have heard about
people being thrown out of church for having a child out of wedlock is
absurd. When sin happens (and it happens
to all of us, public or private), reconciliation and help is required of
the church, urging repentance on the part of the sinner, but walking alongside
them as well.
Finally, church discipline is not to be given to those who
don't know Christ, even if they know the church. Pastor Perry Noble of NewSpring church puts
it this way: "How can we expect non-believers to act any differently if
they don't know Jesus?" Many times
people (perhaps intending good, but doing harm) want people to act like
followers of Christ when they have no clue who Christ is; we want people to
submit to church discipline and repent when they aren't a part of the church
body.
Ultimately, church discipline is the body of Christ helping
a participant in church to repent and reconcile with God.
Want to learn more?
Here is Article 14 of the Mennonite Confession of faith: http://www.mennoniteusa.org/about/confession-of-faith-in-a-mennonite-perspective-1995/article-14-discipline-in-the-church/
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