Who's afraid of the Church?

Years ago, the small private school I attended had its own security “force” that patrolled the campus. I hesitate to call them a “force”, because about the only real authority they had was to wield their gigantic ring of keys and unlock doors. They carried no weapons, and none of the students really gave any attention to their uniforms and cheap, painted, badges.

In some ways, the modern church has become like that weaponless security force. They have no actual authority over their membership, and no one really fears their church family as an accountability force in their life. Personal autonomy has trumped communal responsibility.

It was not too long ago, however, that the church maintained a biblical practice that required each member to live with a certain level of accountability to the Word of God, and to their church. This all-but-abandoned practice is called church discipline. The Scriptures clearly call for individual churches to hold to their members accountable to a biblical standard of personal purity, spiritual unity, and doctrinal integrity (i.e., I Corinthians 5; Matthew 18:15-17).

Unfortunately, in the lustful pursuit of “church growth”, too many pastors and their congregations have allowed pragmatism and seeker sensitivities to cause the practice of church discipline to go the way of the eight track and the dinosaur. Southern Seminary president, Dr. Al Mohler says, “As a matter of fact, most [modern] Christians introduced to the biblical teaching concerning church discipline…confront the issue of church discipline as an idea they have never before encountered. At first hearing, the issue seems as antiquarian and foreign as the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem witch trials (The Disappearance of God, Multnomah Books, 2009, p. 122).”

Though the practice of church discipline among many congregations may be a dusty tool, it is a Scriptural one, and therefore should be recovered. The testimony and integrity of the church has been tarnished by inflated membership rolls, cluttered with the unregenerate, and backslidden. Unless the church reestablishes her authority over her members, the modern congregation will continue to be little more than a religious club where affiliation is casual and based on consumerism rather than true Christian faith.

I am aware that to reinstitute church discipline will likely mean that some, if not many of the current membership in our churches will feel led to move their membership to other, less puritanical fellowships. However, a pure testimony is of more value to Christ’s church than a large membership.