Tags
autonomy, Church, conscience, discipline, Evangelical, individualism, ron, scandal, Sider
Church discipline used to be a significant, accepted part of most evangelical traditions, whether Reformed, Methodist, Baptist, or Anabaptist. John Calvin devoted a chapter of his great systematic theology to church discipline. Calvin puts it bluntly:
As the saving doctrine of Christ is the soul of the Church, so discipline forms the ligaments which connect the members together, and keep each in its proper place. Whoever, therefore, either desires the abolition of all discipline, or obstructs its restoration, whether they act from design or inadvertency, they certainly promote the entire dissolution of the Church.
For centuries, Calvinist, Methodist, and Anabaptist congregations regularly practiced church discipline.
In the second half of the twentieth century, however, it has largely disappeared. Martin Jeschke, who has written perhaps the best Anabaptist books on church discipline, quotes Haddon Robinson’s summary of the current scene:
Too often now when people join a church, they do so as consumers. If they like the product, they stay. If they do not, they leave. They can no more imagine a church disciplining them than they could a store that sells goods disciplining them. It is not the place of the seller to discipline the consumer. In our churches we have a consumer mentality.
It is not surprising that a cultural setting that absolutizes consumer choice and individual autonomy has effectively pushed churches to abandon their long heritage of church discipline.
We simply must recover this biblical practice. Certainly we must do it wisely and lovingly. Too often in the past petty legalisms and harsh attitudes have crept into the process. Language about courts and trials is not appropriate. Church discipline, even the final stage of excluding persistent sinners from church membership, is really just using our last resort in pleading with an erring brother or sister to forsake sin and return to the loving arms of the Lord who longs to forgive him or her. Church discipline is finally simply watching over one another in love.
- Ronald J. Sider, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience, p. 114, 115)
How dare you even speak about church discipline while the SBC is laboring to launch the Great Commission Resurgence! If you start emphazing that stuff now, how are we going to get anybody to sign a decision card or pray the sinner’s prayer? This is no time for church discipline, and besides, it’s unnecessary . Just as soon as we can get Obama to declare war on Iran and initiate Armegeddon, God is going to rapture all the true believers out of this temporary little arrangement we call the church. Then discipline will begin in earnest. The only relevant question for church members today is, “Do you support the Cooperative Program?”
I detect a smidgen of holy sarcasm, lol
I believe we are currently in the dispensation of insanity … if/when the rapture would/did occur, would there be enough people missing for anyone to care about finding???
Harpie’s point is well made. Modern day ‘evanglicals’ won’t let a little thing like church discipline stand in the way of growing the church (sarcasm intended)… The SBC is a major transgressor but not the only one. Strike up the rock band and on with the dramatic skit boys, we need to get 100 decision cards filled out before noon so we can get to Denny’s …
I’ve recently read (and thoroughly enjoyed – with one caveat) this book: http://www.amazon.com/Church-Surprising-Offense-Gods-Love/dp/1433509059 which my elders are now reading. A dear sister commented last Sunday how thankful she was to belong to a church wherein a soul would be shown the mirror if his soul in the Scriptures and be grateful for the rebuke. Discipline starts and mostly takes place between a couple of members – most disputes should never get escalated to the church. And if church members hold one another in account, it will be a known thing should something have to be take to the church.