Posts
Fourth high place out of five.
4. Our lack of church discipline. Thankfully, there are a number of prominent leaders today who believe and teach church discipline. Some churches still practice it and more are learning about it for the first time. But on the whole, it would naive to think that anything but a small fraction of churches in North America regularly practice church discipline. It is just too hard, too unpopular, and frankly, too messy.
But Jesus teaches it (Matt. 18) and Paul teaches it (1 Cor. 5), and historically it has been one of the three marks of the church. If God is holy and dwells among those who are holy, then unrepentant sin cannot be left unchecked in our congregations.
A lot of great work has been done in recent years mining the riches of Genevan Consistory records. If you study the records, or even the secondary sources, you discover that Calvin took the pastoral care of the church very seriously. It's easy to judge his efforts as controlling or intrusive, but they were also profoundly loving.
Usually 5-7 percent of the adult population was called to the Consistory for some case or hearing each year. In its first two years of activity, the Consistory summoned almost 850 persons out of total population of less than 13,000. If you included friends and family of those who were summoned, it’s likely that more families than not were involved in some disciplinary proceedings in those first two years. Overkill? At times, but they certainly took seriously their role to guard and guide the flock. It’s easy to fault Calvin for being over-zealous, but at least he was zealous.
Part of the problem is that we don’t know our people very well. We don’t follow up on folks when they disappear. We don’t stay in touch with them throughout the year. We don’t prepare our people with robust teaching on the meaning of membership and the duties of church members. Again, gratefully there are good models out there for us. But these are the exception. I would guess that less than 5% of our churches have been involved in any kind of disciplinary process in the last year. Maybe we have very holy churches. Or maybe we have delinquent shepherds.
I know first hand how hard and time consuming this work can be. But the elders are called to it and must be prepared for it. In particular, to cite just one example, we need to rise to the challenge of rampant divorce in our culture. I hold to the traditional Protestant view and believe that divorce is legitimate for sexual immorality and desertion, and that remarriage is allowed in those cases, but most of the divorces under are noses are not for biblical reasons. True, we sometimes get involved after the divorce or after remarriage and we have to make the best of the situation, but we simply need more courage to get involved earlier and stand our ground, no matter how often it gets us enmeshed in perplexing situations and unpopular decisions.
Church discipline is a means of grace given by God’s gracious hand. It is not a club, but a gentle rod to help the sheep come back to the fold. I have seen church discipline end painfully without resolution, but I also that it can work to wake up a struggling sinner and walk them back to faith and repentance.
Pastors and elders will give an account for their flocks before God. And the flock is commanded to heed the call of their leaders (Heb. 13:7). So let’s pray the sheep and the shepherds together will tear down this high place and agree to embrace church discipline as one of Scripture's ordained means for building churches that reflect the character of God.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Our High Places (4)
Fourth high place out of five.
4. Our lack of church discipline. Thankfully, there are a number of prominent leaders today who believe and teach church discipline. Some churches still practice it and more are learning about it for the first time. But on the whole, it would naive to think that anything but a small fraction of churches in North America regularly practice church discipline. It is just too hard, too unpopular, and frankly, too messy.
But Jesus teaches it (Matt. 18) and Paul teaches it (1 Cor. 5), and historically it has been one of the three marks of the church. If God is holy and dwells among those who are holy, then unrepentant sin cannot be left unchecked in our congregations.
A lot of great work has been done in recent years mining the riches of Genevan Consistory records. If you study the records, or even the secondary sources, you discover that Calvin took the pastoral care of the church very seriously. It's easy to judge his efforts as controlling or intrusive, but they were also profoundly loving.
Usually 5-7 percent of the adult population was called to the Consistory for some case or hearing each year. In its first two years of activity, the Consistory summoned almost 850 persons out of total population of less than 13,000. If you included friends and family of those who were summoned, it’s likely that more families than not were involved in some disciplinary proceedings in those first two years. Overkill? At times, but they certainly took seriously their role to guard and guide the flock. It’s easy to fault Calvin for being over-zealous, but at least he was zealous.
Part of the problem is that we don’t know our people very well. We don’t follow up on folks when they disappear. We don’t stay in touch with them throughout the year. We don’t prepare our people with robust teaching on the meaning of membership and the duties of church members. Again, gratefully there are good models out there for us. But these are the exception. I would guess that less than 5% of our churches have been involved in any kind of disciplinary process in the last year. Maybe we have very holy churches. Or maybe we have delinquent shepherds.
I know first hand how hard and time consuming this work can be. But the elders are called to it and must be prepared for it. In particular, to cite just one example, we need to rise to the challenge of rampant divorce in our culture. I hold to the traditional Protestant view and believe that divorce is legitimate for sexual immorality and desertion, and that remarriage is allowed in those cases, but most of the divorces under are noses are not for biblical reasons. True, we sometimes get involved after the divorce or after remarriage and we have to make the best of the situation, but we simply need more courage to get involved earlier and stand our ground, no matter how often it gets us enmeshed in perplexing situations and unpopular decisions.
Church discipline is a means of grace given by God’s gracious hand. It is not a club, but a gentle rod to help the sheep come back to the fold. I have seen church discipline end painfully without resolution, but I also that it can work to wake up a struggling sinner and walk them back to faith and repentance.
Pastors and elders will give an account for their flocks before God. And the flock is commanded to heed the call of their leaders (Heb. 13:7). So let’s pray the sheep and the shepherds together will tear down this high place and agree to embrace church discipline as one of Scripture's ordained means for building churches that reflect the character of God.
4. Our lack of church discipline. Thankfully, there are a number of prominent leaders today who believe and teach church discipline. Some churches still practice it and more are learning about it for the first time. But on the whole, it would naive to think that anything but a small fraction of churches in North America regularly practice church discipline. It is just too hard, too unpopular, and frankly, too messy.
But Jesus teaches it (Matt. 18) and Paul teaches it (1 Cor. 5), and historically it has been one of the three marks of the church. If God is holy and dwells among those who are holy, then unrepentant sin cannot be left unchecked in our congregations.
A lot of great work has been done in recent years mining the riches of Genevan Consistory records. If you study the records, or even the secondary sources, you discover that Calvin took the pastoral care of the church very seriously. It's easy to judge his efforts as controlling or intrusive, but they were also profoundly loving.
Usually 5-7 percent of the adult population was called to the Consistory for some case or hearing each year. In its first two years of activity, the Consistory summoned almost 850 persons out of total population of less than 13,000. If you included friends and family of those who were summoned, it’s likely that more families than not were involved in some disciplinary proceedings in those first two years. Overkill? At times, but they certainly took seriously their role to guard and guide the flock. It’s easy to fault Calvin for being over-zealous, but at least he was zealous.
Part of the problem is that we don’t know our people very well. We don’t follow up on folks when they disappear. We don’t stay in touch with them throughout the year. We don’t prepare our people with robust teaching on the meaning of membership and the duties of church members. Again, gratefully there are good models out there for us. But these are the exception. I would guess that less than 5% of our churches have been involved in any kind of disciplinary process in the last year. Maybe we have very holy churches. Or maybe we have delinquent shepherds.
I know first hand how hard and time consuming this work can be. But the elders are called to it and must be prepared for it. In particular, to cite just one example, we need to rise to the challenge of rampant divorce in our culture. I hold to the traditional Protestant view and believe that divorce is legitimate for sexual immorality and desertion, and that remarriage is allowed in those cases, but most of the divorces under are noses are not for biblical reasons. True, we sometimes get involved after the divorce or after remarriage and we have to make the best of the situation, but we simply need more courage to get involved earlier and stand our ground, no matter how often it gets us enmeshed in perplexing situations and unpopular decisions.
Church discipline is a means of grace given by God’s gracious hand. It is not a club, but a gentle rod to help the sheep come back to the fold. I have seen church discipline end painfully without resolution, but I also that it can work to wake up a struggling sinner and walk them back to faith and repentance.
Pastors and elders will give an account for their flocks before God. And the flock is commanded to heed the call of their leaders (Heb. 13:7). So let’s pray the sheep and the shepherds together will tear down this high place and agree to embrace church discipline as one of Scripture's ordained means for building churches that reflect the character of God.
