Posted on 07/07/2025 11:15:56 AM PDT by Morgana
Lifeway Research found pastors haven’t felt the need to practice church discipline in their congregations frequently, if at all.
Most pastors say their churches have policies in place to address significant misbehavior by church members, but few have actually used those policies recently.
According to a Lifeway Research study of more than 1,000 U.S. Protestant pastors, only 1 in 6 say their church has formally disciplined anyone in the past year.
“The infrequency of church discipline is not because church members aren’t sinning,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “Church discipline typically occurs when a member is not repentant for a sin or is no longer qualified for a role because of sin.”
Discipline practice
Pastors haven’t felt the need to practice church discipline in their congregations frequently, if at all. Most U.S. Protestant pastors (54%) say their churches haven’t formally disciplined a member since they became the pastor, nor was it done previously, as far as they know.
More than 1 in 5 (22%) say it has been three or more years, while 3% say it has been around two years. Almost 1 in 7 have disciplined someone recently, including 6% in the last year, 6% in the past six months and 3% in the last month. Those figures are statistically unchanged from a 2017 Lifeway Research study.
While church discipline is rare generally, the practice is even rarer among those affiliated with mainline denominations. Less than half (47%) of evangelical pastors say they’re not aware of anyone being disciplined at their churches, while 70% of mainline pastors claim that is the case in their congregations. Methodist pastors (82%) are the most likely to say church discipline has not happened at their churches.
Meanwhile, larger churches are among the least likely to have avoided practicing church discipline. Around a third (35%) of pastors at churches with at least 250 in worship attendance say no one has been formally disciplined, fewer than any other church size.
“The more people you have in your church, the more likely someone’s behavior warrants discipline,” said McConnell. “Teachings and traditions also play into a church’s willingness to discipline someone.” Discipline preparation
Even if they rarely or ever use them, 4 in 5 churches have discipline policies. Only 14% of U.S. Protestant pastors say they have no official policies in place for disciplining members.
When asked who at the church is responsible for administering formal discipline of a church member, 14% say the elders alone, 11% point to pastor alone and 10% say the whole congregation. Fewer say the responsibility resides in a council or committee alone (5%), trustees or board members alone (4%) or deacons alone (1%). More than a third (35%) say the process states two or more of these groups must agree, while 6% say none of these.
“Different churches have different decision-making structures. When it comes to disciplining a member, this decision is most often implemented by more than one decision-making group within the church. This is likely driven by a desire for unity through a difficult decision,” said McConnell.
Mainline pastors are almost twice as likely as evangelical pastors to say their churches have no official discipline policies (21% v. 12%). Methodists are the most likely to say they have no such policies in their congregations (36%).
Churches with fewer than 50 in attendance are also around twice as likely as congregations with more than 100 in attendance to report no formal church discipline policies (19% v. 9%).
White pastors are the most likely to say church discipline is the responsibility of elders alone (16%), while African American pastors are among the most likely to say it falls to the pastor alone (21%). Discipline purpose
The Bible addresses church discipline at least twice. The long-term goal in each passage is repentance and restoration of the offending members.
In Matthew 18, Jesus lays out a process for going to an individual directly to confront wrongdoing. If that doesn’t work, Jesus says to bring additional witnesses. If that also fails, the issue should be brought before the whole church. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul instructs the church at Corinth to confront sinful members and remove them from the congregation.
Around 4 in 5 U.S. Protestant pastors (83%) say their churches seek to lovingly and biblically confront unconfessed sin, including 51% who strongly agree. Few (14%) disagree, and 3% aren’t sure.
Evangelical pastors are more likely than mainline pastors to say this is the case in their congregations (89% v. 74%). Denominationally, Restorationist Movement (94%) and Baptist (90%) pastors are more likely than Lutheran (82%), Presbyterian/Reformed (73%) and Methodist (69%) pastors to agree their churches aim to lovingly and biblically confront unconfessed sin.
“Confronting unconfessed sin is both for the benefit of the local church and the individual,” said McConnell. “Most churches look to follow biblical guidelines in these cases.”
For more information, view the complete report.(online)
Which could mean that the churches are full of wickedness.
That is NOT the main issue. The main issue is that LEADERS often don’t get disciplined until too late…The secrets can only be kept so long, the scandal explodes, and the congregation left in tatters.
I was looking over some old church records of the Baptist church I attend. They were over a hundred years old, and let me tell you, they were quick on the draw. One offense that could get people put out of the church — certain ones were “walking unruly.” There was no further explanation.
I thought the whole idea what that we are all sinners. Man, you would really have to screw up to be deemed unworthy of redemption from your pastor.
But these days, church members are seen as dollar bills waving back and forth in the pews. You don’t want to risk losing those!
But this is nothin…we had a priest in our parish who literally murdered a kid. It took a decade to get him tossed out of the diocese.
When churches dismiss the qualifications for elders, this isn’t unexpected.
Our Conference told us to quit using bottled water because Global WarmingCooling
My family left the church we were going to because some youth members, and their parents, spread horrible lies about my 12 year old daughter because “Its what we do for fun”. I caught one of the little bitches trying to physically hurt my daughter at an off campus outing and the preacher told me I had anger issues because I told the girl if she ever came anywhere near my daughter again I would beat the snot out of her and her daddy.
There’s a reason for the words in Matthew 18
Yes. Just don't conflate that teaching with what the article is talking. Look at Matthew 18:15-18, which is Jesus saying how to handle someone who has wronged you. That's not talking about just sin in general, but making sure people in the church aren't causing harm to others. The other Bible reference from the article is 1 Corinthians 5, which is about sexual immorality. Verse 2 talks about being proud of it (perhaps it's not just the sexual sin but being boastful about it might be Paul saying he's encouraging others to do the same sin). To which Paul says to kick him out.
Neither of those should be confused with faith in Christ washing our sins clean and saving us from Hell. This is about how the church should handle people's whose sins hurt others or influence others to sin. At least, that's my take.
This is about how the church should handle people’s whose sins hurt others or influence others to sin. At least, that’s my take.
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Agreeing with you
One of our denominations membership vows asks "do you submit to the government and discipline of the church, and promise to study its purity and its peace?" We take discipline seriously.
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