Disfellowship
Having practically grown up in a church building, I've heard plenty of 'war stories'. Everything from church splits to scandals to you name it. The one that always fascinates me the most is disfellowship. This is the point where a church says to a member, you can no longer come here and worship God with us. I would say it is the most serious action a congregation can take.
I've never known anyone personally this has happened to until recently.
I was wondering from those who are in conversation here, what are your thoughts on disfellowship/excommunication?
posted by Bart at 2:00 PM
7 Comments:
Maybe the one thing that is most diconcerting is that it is people who decide who "must go" and the verse that always comes to mind is John 8:7
But what do I know? I'm no elder or deacon.
True, but there is a distinction between a repentant sinner, believing in Christ and a sinner who refuses to acknowledge or change their sin. It's my belief that if you cannot see your own sin, you are not a true believer. and i'm reminded of Matthew 16:19...we've been given authority.
Heard a story on the radio yesterday.
The whole story is worth a read.
The quote that stood out to me is found on the online link to the story - scroll down to A Generational Shift
"Jesus spoke far more of helping the sick and the poor than he did of sexual morality. And the people Jesus rebuked were not the sinners, but the religious leaders."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10215580
The issue is not as much about kicking someone out of a fellowship as it is protecting the fellowship from someone who does not agree to address a sinful lifestyle in their midst. The goal is that the person be restored to the fellowship as quickly as possible.
I grew up in an OTC (One True Church) un-denomination that shall remain un-named (We know who we are anyway). The practice of disfellowship was uncommon but not rare. It usually had to do with sexual impropriety. I am now a Presbyterian, and we don't disfellowship anyone.
That being said, it seems to me that the NT is much more stringent about disfellowship for issues having to do with the unity of the community - those who foment schism, those who are directly threatening the peace and unity of the church.
A recent event in our church has had me thinking about this again. An individual in our church came into a youth activity in our gym where balls were being thrown about and spoke very threateningly and profanely to a youth. One could reasonably assume that if one was concerned about being hit by a ball, one should avoid places where balls were thrown.
This individual was called into an accounting for his behavior, and has subsequently "left the church" in anger. My position on such as this would be that such a one should not be allowed to rejoin the fellowship without apology and repentance and intention to live in peace within the community.
Its been months since this article started. I thought I should point out that I run a blog dedicated to the topic of church discipline. If you hit this thread looking for more detailed information you may find it there.
'if you love only them that love you, what good does it do you?'
I don't believe anyone should ever be excluded from a good church, though clearly boundaries should be set around behaviour which is abusive or illegal for example-'anything goes' is not useful either.
But a church is not just a building and its members can still undertake to reach out to others in the most difficult circumstances- prison and street ministries for example, even by praying and educating themselves about those whom no one cares about much.
The Southern US notion of 'saved' is a big barrier to the Christians from the rest of the world, and something I feel very uncomfortable with, this 'chosen few' who apparently did it right, the ritual or the incantation or the baptism or whatever...it varies church to church!
Jesus made it pretty clear that the person of the looked-down-upon faith was the better person than the more religious who showed no compassion...but we have whole communities now who think that being 'saved' means they are better than others and can judge and show no compassion upon those they disagree with.
I lost my faith in all that a long time ago but someone said to me, about the people who love God above all things, each other as themselves: we walk in the light. And I have held that to me; I don't care if some people judge me, what am I to God, what would I be to Jesus is my faith.
If someone asks me now if I am a Christian I say 'who do others say that I am?'
Jesus mission was healing and leading people to God. In worshipping him as God and introducing all these rituals and incantations we moved away from his intention- and my experience has been in doing church and religion I move away from God.
I church-hop as so many of my generation do, but I can no longer support Bible literalism, traditional theology or the values of Bible times, and I look to the emerging church to work through the 'doublethink' which has become life as a modern Christian.
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