APPENDIX 11
LESSON 5: CHURCH DISCIPLINE AND
o Example: If a brother in Christ sinned against you by telling a lie about you in the community, your response should not be to call him out on Facebook, gossip to others about it, or tell an equally harmful lie about him. Instead, go to the brother and tell him how he has harmed you, and ask him to repent of this sin. Prayerfully, he repents, and the whole process stops here! If he refuses, take two other brothers in Christ and go to him again. If still there is no repentance, take the matter to the church.
The church as a whole should then call this brother to repentance, and if he still refuses, he is to be treated like a non-believer. That means two important things: first, he no longer has the rights and privileges of a church member because he cannot be trusted to be operating in submission to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and second, we share the gospel with him – either he is a believer who needs to be reminded of the truth, or he was a false believer who needs to believe it for the first time.
o The goal in each step of the process is repentance.
o The greater goal of the entire process is the protection of the Body of Christ from unregenerate members and the salvation or restoration of those who are disciplined.
§ The church should be concerned about the implications of a non- believer operating as a church member, as we saw in an earlier lesson.
§ But, to return to the example a moment ago, the greatest concern of all should be that your brother would be saved. If you see
unrepentant sin in the life of someone in your church who
professes to be a Christian, and after you have brought that sin to his attention he still refuses to repent, you should be fearful that he may not truly be saved – his eternity is at stake! Isn’t his eternity more important that the awkwardness of having to walk through this process with him?!
o The purity of the entire local body and the eternal condition of the offending party are at stake, meaning the entire church should be gravely concerned and thus willing to be faithful to this biblical practice.
o Faithful and biblical church discipline begins with love and concern of individual believers for one another. France explains, “The subject is dealing with sin within the discipleship community, but remarkably, it is the concerned individual, not an appointed leader or group, who is
expected to act in the first instance; the wider community is involved only when that individual initiative proves inadequate, and then only to back up the individual’s concern.”1
• Churches will face conflict, especially during seasons of revitalization. During seasons of conflict, tensions are high. Seasons of revitalization in churches are often seasons of “secret meetings,” slander, and interpersonal conflict. Local churches need clearly identified methods of conflict resolution to which every member commits and submits, and biblical church discipline and accountability is a key portion of biblical conflict resolution. If not, church revitalization will be even more difficult.
1 R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2007), 690.
o Croft writes, “A clear understanding of how the members of a church are called to relate to one another is a key in preparing them to move forward and find new life.”2
o . Henard suggests, “Conflict is not the end of the church, but it certainly will facilitate a church’s death if left unchecked and allowed to fester.”3
• A critical place for this instruction to begin is in a Membership Class where candidates for membership can understand the process of church discipline, the role the church expects its members to play, and the need for them to submit themselves to the process.
o For a member to become aware of the process only when a need for discipline arises is antithetical to the biblical purpose of church discipline.
The goal of church discipline is restoration, repentance, and conflict resolution, not deeper conflict.
o Finally, if every incoming member is not aware of the process of biblical church discipline and its application in the local church, every member will not be able to hold every other member individually accountable, as is the clear intention of the biblical design.
o The membership class should explain the process, the intention of the process, and every member’s role in the process.
o It is also unreasonable to expect church members to submit to a process of discipline to which they have not previously agreed. A prerequisite
membership class affords this opportunity.
§ Leeman argues, “Christians don’t join churches; they submit to them.”4
§ Accountability is another word often misunderstood or rejected in modern American church culture. Accountability is the practice of believers being willing to point out unrepentant sin in one
another’s lives and, more importantly, the willingness to hear, receive, and heed the warnings as others point out our unrepentant sins. Accountability within the local church is one of many
instruments of God’s sanctification in the lives of believers.
§ Those who reject the thought of being accountable to one another in the local church and to the body as a whole will only be a detriment to the established structure for conflict resolution. If this unwillingness to submit to the church in this regard is recognized while the individual is still a membership candidate and not yet a member, he or she can simply decide not to join.
Transition to Lesson 6: Next week, we will consider how the Membership Class better facilitates church involvement and communicates the church’s expectations of its members.
2 Brian Croft, Biblical Church Revitalization: Solutions for Dying & Divided Churches (Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2016), 78.
3 Bill Henard, ReClaimed Church: How Churches Grow, Decline, and Experience Revitalization (Nashville: B & H, 2018), 49.
4 Jonathan Leeman, Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 30.
APPENDIX 12
LESSON 6: CHURCH INVOLVEMENT