In the name of discipline

[h5463]

Church discipline is indeed the most difficult part of church ministry. In our area, we frequently saw church lay leaders even disciplining pastors. It was sad to see such a painful process, especially when there is actually no apparent issue related to Christian belief and moral norm. Leaders just go for power competition in the name of discipline. They abuse the system. The phrase “interrogation� to pastors is actually quite scary. It is understandable for church to hire the “third party� for evaluation, because the lay leaders are just not so fair sometimes, if not often. Sometimes when the leaders are also involved in the power struggle with pastor, they surely need to avoid a conflict of interest. In some cases, even the third party is not fair enough, because it may have some interest with some of the leaders who need to exercise the discipline process. Discipline is way more complicated than the author mentions. Who holds the rod really decides what direction the discipline will go.

Discipline turns out divide the beloved church in many cases. The real reason is we no longer has the authority to exercise discipline. We are not Paul or apostles. But I guess even they can’t exercise discipline freely in our postmodern times, which downgrades any authority especially church’s and pastor’s. A pastor was committed to adultery with a worker in the church. The leading board went to investigate and concluded that the pastor must leave immediately. It should be a good case of discipline. But actually some of the pastor’s sympathizers left the church afterwards. The husband of the wife, who had the affair with the left pastor, claimed to sue the church….Even in a case like that, not everyone feels satisfied. In some cases the disciplined pastor leaves the church and forms a new one. Some churches may maintain church unity after the incident, but however have difficulty to regain trust toward leadership….

Because discipline is too difficult, we simply give it up. And we lose a precious jewelry in the crown of the biblical church life and ministry. But how do church and pastor use the shepherd’s rod properly in our times?