Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Discipling Discipline
Milt Stanley links to a post that is essentially a defense of church discipline.
The decline in church discipline, can be traced, I think, to the formation of a very different view of what the church is. I hate to make blanket statements that "evangelicalism is bad," but this shift is largely a result of the growth and spread of evangelical-ism. We have come to view the church almost entirely as an enterprise dedicated to outreach and evangelism, when it is supposed to be that and so much more.
If one is doing outreach and evangelism than a "come as you are" sort of attitude is warranted, we want ALL to hear the good news of Jesus Christ, and hopefully, accept it. But that is just one aspect of the call of the church. And has we have discussed here on this blog time and time again, such a view of the church fails to deliver in building disciples. Believers maybe, but disciples, I think not.
I have discussed many times how I think that we have gotten this way as the most expedient means to institutional survival. But there is another reason that I have discussed less frequently. Our clergy and lay leadership set this tone, and I think they fail to incorporate a vision for the WHOLE church. In many cases because they are called to evangelism and not to the whole ministry of the church.
This is one of the reasons I am a big supporter of the para-church. If one feels a professional call to but a single aspect of the church's full mission, the para-church provides a means to accomplish that without compromising the totality of the church. How different would things be if many of today's senior pastors worked for Billy Graham, or Young Life instead of ran churches?
Now, for this to work well, the church needs to learn to work in conjunction with these organizations, not in competition, but, if the church were to have a full vision of its calling, I think that would be natural.
I also think we need to return to the idea that it is VERY possible to be called to ministry without being called to a paycheck. These past years as I have worked in the political arena with Mormons, there is one absolute good I see in them that I wish we could learn from, and that is their lack of a professional clergy and total and utter reliance on volunteer labor for almost every aspect of church work.
For one thing, it has made the church extraordinarily wealthy. Without salaries drawing on the tithe, imagine what can be accomplished with that money. But that is a very temporal aspect of an extraordinarily spiritual concept. I truly think our church needs to study this and learn from it. I think it goes a long way to explain their relative success compared to ours.
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Like Ms. Alter, most Christians seem to see church discipline either as a harsh, legalistic, and unloving process, which true followers of Christ should never practice, or (also well illustrated in the WSJ article) as a handy tool for getting rid of inquisitive, irritating, or challenging members.AMEN!
Neither of these views is biblical.
The Bible never presents church discipline as being negative, legalistic or harsh. True discipline originates from God himself and is always presented as a sign of genuine love. Consider these three verses: “The Lord disciplines those he loves” (Heb. 12:6). “Blessed is the man you discipline, O LORD, the man you teach from your law” (Ps. 94:12). “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline” (Rev. 3:19).
The decline in church discipline, can be traced, I think, to the formation of a very different view of what the church is. I hate to make blanket statements that "evangelicalism is bad," but this shift is largely a result of the growth and spread of evangelical-ism. We have come to view the church almost entirely as an enterprise dedicated to outreach and evangelism, when it is supposed to be that and so much more.
If one is doing outreach and evangelism than a "come as you are" sort of attitude is warranted, we want ALL to hear the good news of Jesus Christ, and hopefully, accept it. But that is just one aspect of the call of the church. And has we have discussed here on this blog time and time again, such a view of the church fails to deliver in building disciples. Believers maybe, but disciples, I think not.
I have discussed many times how I think that we have gotten this way as the most expedient means to institutional survival. But there is another reason that I have discussed less frequently. Our clergy and lay leadership set this tone, and I think they fail to incorporate a vision for the WHOLE church. In many cases because they are called to evangelism and not to the whole ministry of the church.
This is one of the reasons I am a big supporter of the para-church. If one feels a professional call to but a single aspect of the church's full mission, the para-church provides a means to accomplish that without compromising the totality of the church. How different would things be if many of today's senior pastors worked for Billy Graham, or Young Life instead of ran churches?
Now, for this to work well, the church needs to learn to work in conjunction with these organizations, not in competition, but, if the church were to have a full vision of its calling, I think that would be natural.
I also think we need to return to the idea that it is VERY possible to be called to ministry without being called to a paycheck. These past years as I have worked in the political arena with Mormons, there is one absolute good I see in them that I wish we could learn from, and that is their lack of a professional clergy and total and utter reliance on volunteer labor for almost every aspect of church work.
For one thing, it has made the church extraordinarily wealthy. Without salaries drawing on the tithe, imagine what can be accomplished with that money. But that is a very temporal aspect of an extraordinarily spiritual concept. I truly think our church needs to study this and learn from it. I think it goes a long way to explain their relative success compared to ours.
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