BEING LOYAL TO YOUR CHURCH (Part 7)

BEING LOYAL TO YOUR CHURCH (PART 7)
(Why people leave their churches 2)
INTRODUCTION: In the previous discussions, we have been dealing with reasons why some church members are not being loyal to their churches but have been hopping from one church to another. Last week, we talked about neglect of the Teaching Ministry. This time, we are going to discuss another reason: Lack of Church Discipline.

LACK OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE

Text: 1Pe 2:9-12
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. (NKJV)

Discipline simply means punishing an individual for breaking the laws of a unit of society or a group to which he belongs with the view of restoring him back to those laws. The Bible teaches clearly that believers must live holy lives, because the God that we serve is a holy God. The church of God must also be kept holy and blameless for God. In the light of these, believers who do not live in accordance with the word of God must be disciplined.

In any Christian Church, discipline is administers to serve any or all of the following purposes: In the first place, Church Discipline is applied on offending members to maintain standards of the church to a watching world, (Matt 5:13-16; Acts 5:1-16; Rom 2:24). If the church fails to discipline those whose deserve to be discipline, its witness to the world becomes weak and fraudulent. Additionally, discipline is administered to keep sin from spreading throughout the church, (Josh 7:3; 1Cor 5:6-7). There is the tendency that new converts and those who are not deeply rooted in Christ will copy or follow the offending brethren to sin against the Lord. This is especially so when the offending brethren are people of influence. Again, discipline is applied in order to help the offending ones to repent, (2Cor 2:6-8). If offending brethren are not corrected, they may live in their sins and their salvation may be compromised. Finally, discipline is applied in order to help offending members escape God's judgments. What is meant here is that God at times punishes habitually sinning saints through sickness, (1Cor 11:30) and physical death, (1Cor 11:30). In the light of these offending members should be punished by the church as a way of purging itself and keeping itself clean as the spotless bride of Christ Jesus.

Now that we know why offenders should be disciplined, there is the need to identify those whose should be disciplined. To begin with, any church member who falls into an open sin should be disciplined. Any troublemaker in the church should be disciplined. Aaron and Miriam were punished for fomenting troubles during the time of Moses. In troublemakers are not brought to book, in any church, confusion and commotion shall be its lot and the peaceful members will quietly leave the church, (Prov. 16:6; Rom. 16:17). Very importantly, those who do not discipline themselves should be disciplined, (1Thess 5:14; 2Thess 3:6,11). Members should not be allowed to live their lives anyhow. They should be help to live by the tenets of the divine life-manual – the Bible. Additionally, those who disobey the great doctrines of the faith as well as those who deny the great doctrines of the faith should be disciplined, (2Thess 3:14; 1Tim 6:3,5; 2Tim 2:16-18, Tit 3:10; 2John 1:10; Rev 2:14). The last group of church members who should be lovingly subjected to church discipline are the immoral members, (1Cor 5:1-5). Take good note that adulterers and fornicators have no place in heaven.

The bone of contention has in many cases been how discipline should be administered in the church. Church discipline ranges from private admonishing, open rebuke, warnings, interdiction, suspension and excommunication, depending on the gravity of the offences committed. In private admonishing, offending members can be talked to in private. Offending members can be warned in church or privately about certain things which may lead them into danger. Furthermore, offending members may be rebuked openly in some situations after they have failed to follow advice and warnings. With interdiction: members whose cases demand further investigation may be interdicted until the truth or otherwise is established. During that period, the person is relieved of all his responsibilities, but he is not suspended anyway. Suspension may be administered on any church member who falls into open sin. The highest form of church discipline is excommunication, where the offending member is totally expelled from the church. It is normally the highest decision-making body of the church or denomination which has the power to excommunicate, and it is applied basically on those who commit deliberately, the highest offenders such as heretics and apostates who refuse to repent.

It sad to note that, in many churches, discipline is neither talked about nor enforced! There are churches which are so liberal that how members live their lives and what members do after church are not important. All that is important is that members come to church in their numbers, sing, dance, listen to ecstatic preaching, give fat offerings and go away! Whatever church members do after church is “private matter”. But sin is sin. God abhors and exposes sin. Some church leaders themselves live questionable lifestyles after church so they don’t have the moral right to talk about discipline. In such circumstance, some church members who want to live holy lives move out of such churches. Undisciplined members of other churches where discipline is enforced also move out of their churches and pitch their camps in those “free-range” churches. Another sad reflection is that when church members are disciplined in their churches, some church leaders see it as an opportunity to woo them to come to their churches.

Let me conclude with a pathetic scenario I witnessed when I was at my former station as a District Pastor. There was a married Deacon in my church who was caught by his wife in bed with a teenager. This deacon was consequently suspended for a period of time with the hope that he will repent. After the incident he had been attending church alright. But at point in time, he was nowhere to be found. One day, a pastor from another church invited me to a revival service he was conducting in a nearby village. To my surprise, I met my suspended deacon there. He had been made an Elder in the other pastor’s church and was the one hosting the programme! I kept my cool, ministered and came back home with the pastor without asking any questions. Two weeks later, I went back to the village to visit my local branch church. Membership had tripled. I commended the Presiding Elder for winning so many souls, but he quickly informed me that it was not his making. All the members of the other church had moved to join my church after hearing that their “Elder” was a fornicator under discipline in my church!

PASTOR WILLIAM BOACHIE-ANSAH
THE CHURCH OF PENTECOST
P.O. BOX 10
NSAWKAW-B/A, GHANA
+233 244137880
boachieansah@gmail.com
copnsawkaw@yahoo.com