40 Questions About Church Membership and Discipline
By James B. Pate
If you’ve read any of the “40 Questions…” series, you know
how good the work being done is and how much scholarship goes into each
offering. Not all authors are at the same level of expertise, of course; some
are better scholars than others, and some are better at allowing themselves to
be understood. Given that disclaimer, this book is badly needed in today’s
churches; perhaps even more in the Spanish world. So, here’s hoping it gets translated
soon, and that Hispanic Pastors will pick it up to learn from it.
The topic
is a very current one and, as I said, badly needed. Not every church has an
established membership process, some don’t even have one at all. Anyone that
comes in through the doors semi-consistently is considered a member; sooner
than that if they start tithing or giving offerings. The missing element of a
mutual agreement (“covenant” may even be a better word) between the church and
the prospective member in today’s environment harms not only the church, but it
cheapens a member’s faithful Christian life.
Beyond
that, members need to know how their private matters (even their private sins)
will be handled by the leadership. Some people have been surprised to learn,
only too late, that there was no privacy agreement between them and the Pastor;
and everyone ended up knowing everything that had been disclosed behind closed
doors. This is the more common when a respected and/or beloved member decides
to move to a different church in the area. It became open season on the poor
member and character attacks, dressed in “concerned warning” garb made its
rounds in the previous church and also the new one.
Of course,
we have to also know that not every member has the church’s best interest at
heart all the time, therefore the need for a MUTUAL agreement.
Church discipline is also badly needed in our time; just
because someone that committed a sin weeps at the altar does not mean they are
ready to be fully reincorporated to whatever ministry they were involved in
prior to their sin. I should not even have to tell you about how the church
needs to protect its children and youth in every possible way from those that
are not qualified for service in that area, or could be dangerous in other ways
to the spiritual, physical, and even sexual well-being of our children!!!
Where church
discipline does exist, it is not usually done the Scriptural way, but in ways
that the church attorney’s or a denomination’s handbook instructs the Pastor to
do it. Shame on those who call themselves Bible Christians/Pastors, etc., but
leave the Bible aside every time it conflicts with the official church Manual.
This, sadly, will not change until we all learn what the Bible teaches on
topics like this.
So, yes,
this book is a must-read for every minister, pastor, leader in every church.
And it wouldn’t hurt every member to read it as well.
I do have
some doubts that a couple of difficult-to-interpret Bible passages were handled
correctly, and think that the “turning over to Satan for the destruction of the
flesh” is handled with kid gloves rather than allowing the horrors of such a
recourse to instruct us and our members to the seriousness of our sin; but
those are rare enough that the book is still the go-to handbook for these
issues.
4/5 Stars
Disclaimer: The book was received for free from Kregel
Ministry books in exchange for an unbiased opinion.