Why Church Discipline Matters

10 Questions Leaders Must Ask . . .

These days, parents who provide corrective discipline to their children raise eyebrows, but one case recently in the news will leave you shaking your head. Imagine being the parent of a High School age daughter who decides she doesn’t like your rules. She moves out of your house and then proceeds to sue you for the cost of her private school education and future college expenses!

It happened. In fact, the court case surrounding Rachel Channing and her parents played out in the town where I grew up, Morristown, NJ. When the dust settled, the judge in the case ruled against the younger Channing and in favor of her parents. He asked the lawyers involved if it was prudent to “establish precedent where parents live in fear of establishing rules of the house?”

“Living in fear of establishing rules of the house” . . . Now there’s a phrase that has special relevance to the local church. It’s relevant because many of the churches which we at Blessing Point Ministries work to heal could have avoided their painful crises simply by implementing such “rules of the house,” biblically speaking.

Many of the problems we see in churches today originate from a lack of loving but firm church discipline. We have learned that a truly healthy church embraces church discipline to promote community well-being and congregational holiness. Leaders see it as their ministry to protect the congregation in this way. When they fail to do so, problems fester, and it leaves members wondering where the boundary lines are drawn, and that always means they feel unsafe.

When you read Jesus’ Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor you quickly discover that two of the churches suffered from a lack of church discipline. In Pergamum and Thyatira serious issues went ignored. Jesus speaks directly to those situations, challenging their leaders to exercise church discipline. If they didn’t, He would, and it is clear they won’t like it if He does.

Books aplenty have been written on procedures for exercising church discipline. A book like The Peacemaker by Ken Sande can get you started. Your denomination may also have a process outlined in a manual for its churches to follow. But we see the problem more to be one of implementation, not education.

Leaders are flat-out afraid. Edmond Burke’s famous quote, “The only thing needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” often applies in the local church. Church leaders may have to exercise church discipline with fear and trembling, but failure in this regard is like a soldier abandoning his post, leaving the people inside unprotected. As a church leader, you stand guard at the gate of your church. Be careful what you let pass.

One of the most important ways church leaders honor their Lord is to lovingly discipline those whose behavior or attitudes flies in the face of “house rules.” Here are ten questions related to church discipline for leaders to consider. Ask and answer them at your next board and/or staff meeting:

  1. Are we willing to exercise church discipline when the need arises? If not why not?
  2. Do we have a clearly laid out biblical course of action to follow (i.e. policy)?
  3. Do we know how to listen to all the spiritual gifts God has given to His church to make wise choices in discipline?
  4. Are there any unresolved discipline issues, right now, from which we’re shying away?
  5. How can we handle church discipline with the right spirit?
  6. Has our church been wounded in the past in a way that might lead the congregation to interpret church discipline as spiritual abuse? How can we heal those past wounds?
  7. Do we, as church leaders, need to repent of passivity in relation to church discipline?
  8. How can we educate the congregation about the Bible’s teaching on church discipline and how it relates to our church?
  9. Does our By-Laws/Constitution need to be reviewed in order to lay out clear expectations for members and church leaders in regard to church discipline? (You may need this to protect yourself from legal action).
  10. What will happen if we, as church leaders, ignore behaviors and attitudes that Jesus finds unacceptable?

Rev. Mark Barnard serves as President of Blessing Point Ministries.  Blessing Point works to heal congregations that have been wounded by internal crises.  Barnard is the author of several books and coauthor of The Eighth Letter – Jesus Still Speaks! (ChurchSmart 2014)

How well does your church implement church discipline? What does healthy church discipline look like? Have you seen church discipline work to restore those who flagrantly violate biblical standards? What keeps church leaders from implementing church discipline? Let us know what you think!

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