Absence of corrective discipline glaring omission in churches, professor writes

“One of the most glaring omissions in modern Baptist church life is the absence of the regular practice of biblical church discipline,” wrote New Orleans Seminary professor Stan Norman in a paper presented at the second conference in Southwestern Seminary’s Baptist Distinctives Series, held this fall. Titled “The Reestablishment of Proper Church Discipline,” Norman wrote that the concept of a spiritual accountability to God and one another is absent.

Early Baptist congregations would gather to heal breaches of fellowship, admonish wayward members, rebuke the obstinate, and if required, remove the unrepentant. By engaging in these activities, Baptists believe they were following the biblical pattern established by Christ and the apostles for the health and effectiveness of the church, Norman wrote.

“Contemporary Baptists seem instead to understand themselves as autonomous individuals casually associated together in loose-knit groupings called churches,” he said. “The concept of a spiritual accountability to God and to one another is tragically lacking or ignored.”

There are several biblical reasons for church discipline. Church discipline is directly commanded by Jesus, who gave his disciples the procedure for discipline in Matthew 18:15-20 and has given the church the necessary authority to correct a sinful person under a disciplinary process.

Throughout the Bible, the people of God are characterized by his holiness. The New Testament describes the church as the people of God who are to be known to the world by their purity of life and integrity of message, Norman wrote. God requires that his church reflect his holy character (1 Peter 1:16).

“The church exercises discipline with the authority of heaven, for the Lord is with them, providing assurance and guidance in the process,” Norman asserted.

Failure to discipline indicates unwillingness on the part of the church to ensure that God’s character is rightly and clearly reflected. Church discipline is one means church holiness is preserved, he said.

Historically, Norman said, Baptists and their forebears stressed church discipline. Its implications for church membership were prominent emphases in the early writings and practices of the Anabaptists, for example.

Church discipline was also prominently emphasized in the writings and practices of the early Baptists. The First London Confession of the Particular Baptists (1644) states that every member is subject to congregational discipline and that “the Church ought with great care and tenderness, with due advice to proceed against her members.”

One of the convictions of the Baptist forebears was their pledge to separate themselves from the world and to submit themselves to Christ and to each other. Church discipline was considered one means of achieving this distinction, Norman stated.

The occasion of church discipline can be understood as those sins that have a harmful, public effect upon the congregation in some way. The public nature and knowledge of the sins brought reproach upon the church, impugned the integrity of its message and mission, and dishonored the cause of Christ. Sins worthy of church discipline fall into three categories: fidelity to orthodox doctrine, purity and holiness of life, and unity of the fellowship, Norman wrote.

Norman noted that the Corinthian church, in failing to deal with the man who was living with his father’s wife in 1 Corinthians 5:1, was rebuked for its tolerance of the man’s known sin.

“He instructs the Corinthian believers to ‘turn that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,’ a call for the church to excommunicate the man. This process appears to have had the desired effect; 2 Corinthians 2:4-8 indicates that the apostle had to remind the congregation to forgive and comfort the repentant man and to restore him back into the fellowship.”

The primary purpose of church discipline is the restoration of the offender and reconciliation between the believers and with God, Norman wrote. Church discipline is an act of love to bring repentance and restoration. By remembering that love is the motivation, it is easier for the Christians involved to act genuinely, he said.

Church discipline also keeps sin from spreading to the rest of the fellowship, as the apostle Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5:6-7. Church discipline preserves the communal purity and holiness of the congregation.

Several things have led to the demise of church discipline today, Norman stated. The cultural shift toward stringent autonomy and the absolute relativism in Western society has managed to seep into churches. As a result, the church is awash in a brash individualism that effectively castrates its ability to make moral judgments.

Also, Norman wrote, a lack of respect for authority within the church exists. The anti-institutional mood of the past four decades has effectively eroded ecclesiastic authority, which is met with skepticism and contempt, he said.

Norman said the potential of an “empty offering plate” is a reason why some churches do not practice discipline. The second deterrent to exercising discipline is the fear of litigation. Those who practice discipline might find themselves being sued by the disciplined party, he said.

Norman quotes Charles Colson as stating: “It will be sad news if the court should emasculate the church by holding that it can’t enforce biblical standards for its members; but it will be even worse news if it turns out that by ignoring our biblical responsibilities we have done it to ourselves.”

Prior to the 20th century, most Baptist churches were able to face and overcome these challenges, but the 20th century witnessed the almost complete capitulation of most Southern Baptist churches to numerous philosophical and societal pressures, Norman said.

Implementation of church discipline within a congregation that is currently not practicing it will be a slow and tedious process, Norman advised. The adoption or revision of a church covenant is one place to begin the process of the reestablishment of biblical church discipline, he wrote. The regular, voluntary affirmation of the terms of the covenant by all the members will remind each church member of the integrity of church membership as well as require a recommitment to the disciplinary ministry of the local church, he added.

Moreover, the rediscovery and implementation of church discipline must be an intentional part of the preaching and teaching ministry of a local church, Norman wrote. The doctrine of church discipline as well as congregational accountability and integrity should be taught in new member classes and in the Bible study ministries, with the clearly stated goal of restoration and reconciliation always in view.

He seems to associate a lack of church attendence with a lack of reconciliation between church members. Somehow church discipline becomes the issue with focus on repentence and reconciliation.

Repentence is simply returning to God through faith in Christ. It seems he may be confusing a return to God with a return to his congregation on a regular basis.

I get the impression he wants to see people feel sorry for not attending his club more often and then associate his work with God's work, then confuses their absence as due to their lack of respect for him as opposed to Him.

The issue is an old one of carnality and worldliness also degeneracy.

Whenever dealing with degeneracy we can observe those who oscillate between moral and immoral degeneracy. Frequently if a church is caught up in immoral degeneracy and doesn't first address the issue of faith, they can fall into moral degeneracy. In either case we have believers who are searching for happiness or order in a chaotic situation by their own problem solving techniques rather than by God's.

Church discipline is fairly simple. If we observe a fellow believer fail, we might call it to his attention. Since all things that are loosed here are loosed in heaven and likewise, those things bound here, bound in heaven, we also might use two or witnesses to prevail here as in heaven.

If the believer does not return to God, that is between him and God. The body of believers becomes involved when a backslidden believer distracts from the faithful work of the church so as to interfere with God's plan. God can deal with the problem Himself, although we as believers might call it to our brethren's attention if they are unaware or even encourage him if repetitively falling to temptation.

Just a word of caution, though. Under divine discipline, God has no problem dealing with the backslidden believer. The most miserable people in all the world are backslidden believers. Another believer stepping in between God and a backslidden believer undergoing divine discipline is similar to some strange woman at the grocery store interfering with a parent disciplining their child. The stranger might mean well, but it's a good way fo rthe strange to get into a world of a mess and properly so. Also other things might transpire. As soon as a church begins to discipline their members, the last thing you wan tto have happen is for the believer's behavior to now render obedience to the church before obedience to God through faith in Christ. That is a form of legalism.

IMHO, legalism is a far more likely threat to believers today than is lasciviousness. New generations have already begun showing signs of having their fill of a previous 'Me-Generations' lasciviousness. The weakness in new believers is to hastily judge their fellow man and base their perception of Scripture as a compilation of moral laws. Such thinking will backslide a new believer just as quickly as lasciviousness. Worst still, legalism is frequently accompanied by Bible study. If performed while out of fellowship with the Holy Spirit, the new believer will tend to confuse a relationship with God as rationalism and morality. They will then tend to scar their thinking for years to come, believing that as long as they discipline themselves, they will be on track with God's plan. All that will do is induce a very miserable legalistic moral person to judge others then covet others who are not as yoked as they make themselves.

IMHO, Lack of repentence is dealt with best by love and faith. The penalties of sin is death, and in the case of a carnal Christian or legalistic Christian, they will lose the continueing sanctification of their thinking and heart.

BTW, an unrepentent believer isn't getting away with anything. The trick is how to encourage him to think on his own in a fashion to where he returns to God on his own through faith in Christ.

Now this shouldn't be confused with the legitimate authority within the institutions of volition, marriage, family and national governance. The legitimate authority of those institutions is to be obeyed and respected. I noticed in one of the articles a veiled reference to a church official marching into the homes of the church members to enforce church discipline. That will encroach upon institutions of volition, marriage, family and government. That isn't a very well thought out solution. That smacks of a criminal in the pulpit who is behaving with the mentality of a third grader who hasn't gotten what he wants, so now he os going to take it by force.

That's a good way for the minister to end up in jail and the church given a very bad reputation based upon a fool's thinking rather than on God's protocol for problem solving.

There are six steps to church discipline according to the scriptures:

1. Personal Confrontation: "Go and reprove him" (Matt. 18:15)

2. Confrontation w/ witnesses: Matthew 18:16 says, "By the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed."

3. Confronted w/ Church: Matthew 18:17: "And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church."

4. Cut off (excommunication): Matthew 18:17, must be implemented: "And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer." That means the person is cut off from all association with the local Body of Christ

5. Confronted by weakness and sickness (divine): 1 Corinthians 11:30, "For this reason many among you are weak and sick."

6. Confronted by death (divine): First Corinthians 11:30 says: "For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep." Sleep is the word used in the New Testament exclusively for death of the believer.

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