30
Oct
#4 “Membership / Discipline” by Matt Schmucker
Opened with a great anecdote taken from Greg Wills’ book Democratic Religion, a 19th century story about a member William B. Barnes who was in need of church discipline.
Before the Civil War, Southern Baptists excommunicated nearly 2% of their membership every year. And yet they still grew at incredible rate.
What happened? Why did churches stop practicing c.d.?
Wills: “From temperance to Sabbatarian reform… as Baptists learned to reform the larger society… the less they exerted energy in c.d. of their own.”
Urban churches, refined music, fine buildings… keeping the church solvent - these all became factors that led to a decline in church discipline.
Next to prayer and preaching God’s Word… we actually believe that one of the most important things you can do … more important than getting the music right, or contextualization… is practicing biblical church discipline.
When it comes to the church, there is an “inside” and an “outside”
…Garden of eden
…Noah’s ark
…People of God in the wilderness
…Nation of Israel
…Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
What does it mean to “Guard the front door” in terms of membership?
Three leading reasons why church discipline is not practiced:
1. Christian nominalism
2. Consumerism
3. Idolatry of numbers
October 30th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
I hate to think it, but I do think it. A part of it was because of pastors becoming more dependent upon churches for salary rather than being “bi-vocational.” That has an impact on all pastors — even those who don’t allow it to be the ultimate factor in their decisions.