{"id":1312,"date":"2022-08-12T05:01:02","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T13:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breathingspace\/?p=1312"},"modified":"2022-12-07T07:03:38","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T15:03:38","slug":"church-discipline-part-5-discipling-is-better-than-discipline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breathingspace\/2022\/08\/church-discipline-part-5-discipling-is-better-than-discipline\/","title":{"rendered":"Church Discipline (Part 5): Discipling is Better than Discipline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Evangelical pastors look at me as if I\u2019ve grown two heads when I say I don\u2019t believe in church discipline. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image by Marjon Besteman from Pixabay<\/span><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHow can you lead a church without church discipline?\u201d they ask.<\/strong> I look at the ministry of Jesus, who never disciplined people, but discipled them instead. When you \u201cMatthew 18 someone\u201d<\/a><\/span>, you bring them under Church control, as if it is your religious duty to enforce behavior modification<\/a><\/span>. When you first \u201cCorinthians 13 somebody\u201d, you disciple them in love. If they want to modify their own behavior, that\u2019s great for them! But their church membership should not be contingent upon your behavioral expectations.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pastors as Parents?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Some denominations call their male clergy father<\/em>.<\/strong> Attending a Baptist seminary, I was told that even though we don\u2019t use that term, pastors are very much like the parents of the church. It took me awhile to unlearn that troublesome teaching. When parents are raising children, often they need to focus on behavior modification. Setting up rules and teaching the difference between right and wrong are a parent\u2019s job. But one day I realized that a pastor is not the parent of the church\u2014a pastor is more like a grandparent.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t make rules for my grandchildren. I don\u2019t enforce their behavior.<\/strong> That\u2019s up to their parents to do. As a grandparent, my job is to pull them up in my lap and give them unconditional love. My job is to listen to everything they have to tell me about their lives. It\u2019s my joy to empathize with their struggles and understand that many of the \u201cbad\u201d things they do are actually coping mechanisms based on limited understanding and experience. As a grandparent, my job is to give them advice and guidance, when they want it\u2014not to force my will on them. A pastor\u2019s role is much the same. It\u2019s about discipling, not discipline.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Celebration of Discipline<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Richard Foster wrote an amazing little book called Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth.<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/strong> I have used it many times, teaching classes on the spiritual life. The one thing I would change is the title. It should be called Celebration of Discipling<\/em> instead. For many, the word discipling<\/em> is better than discipline, <\/em>which evokes images of dunce caps, noses in the corner, and switches. A better word is needed. Discipleship<\/em> isn\u2019t too far off the mark, but it\u2019s a noun rather than a verb. Every chapter of Foster\u2019s book describes an active way of living, so Celebration of Discipling<\/em> would make a better title.<\/p>\n

Foster\u2019s book is divided into three sections.<\/strong> The first is called, \u201cThe Inward Disciplines.\u201d These chapters cover the practices of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study. The second part is titled, \u201cThe Outward Disciplines.\u201d These include simplicity, solitude, submission, and service. The third division is, \u201cThe Corporate Disciplines.\u201d These chapters explore confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. Together, these twelve discipling practices guide the believer into mature faith.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maturity versus Modification<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When faith is mature, and Christians are living out the way of Christ, church discipline is unnecessary.<\/strong> Instead of behavior modification, church leaders must focus on building mature believers. This is what the author of Ephesians 4.11-16 (NRSVUE) had in mind when he wrote that Christ\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people\u2019s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body\u2019s growth in building itself up in love.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/em>This means that God didn\u2019t give the church its leaders so they could manipulate them into compliance. <\/strong>Instead, leaders are to invest in the lives of believers and encourage them to grow. When they do this, the church will become mature and have no need to practice church discipline.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Church Discipline Never Ends<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The problem with church discipline is that it never ends.<\/strong> If you always treat church members like children, they will never grow up. If you act like their parent instead of their grandparent, you will forever focus on behavior modification. But if church leaders focus on discipling members rather than disciplining them, the result will be mature Christ-followers who naturally live like Jesus.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evangelical pastors look at me as if I\u2019ve grown two heads when I say I don\u2019t believe in church discipline. \u201cHow can you lead a church without church discipline?\u201d they ask. I look at the ministry of Jesus, who never disciplined people, but discipled them instead. When you \u201cMatthew 18 someone\u201d, you bring them under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4628,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1],"tags":[745,703,748,742],"class_list":["post-1312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-challenging-the-church","category-uncategorized","tag-celebration-of-discipline","tag-church-discipline","tag-pastors-as-grandparents","tag-richard-foster"],"yoast_head":"\nChurch Discipline (Part 5): Discipling is Better than Discipline<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Evangelical pastors look at me as if I\u2019ve grown two heads when I say I don\u2019t believe in church discipline. \u201cHow can you lead a church without church When faith is mature, and Christians are living out the way of Christ, church discipline is unnecessary.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breathingspace\/2022\/08\/church-discipline-part-5-discipling-is-better-than-discipline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church Discipline (Part 5): Discipling is Better than Discipline\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Evangelical pastors look at me as if I\u2019ve grown two heads when I say I don\u2019t believe in church discipline. \u201cHow can you lead a church without church When faith is mature, and Christians are living out the way of Christ, church discipline is unnecessary.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breathingspace\/2022\/08\/church-discipline-part-5-discipling-is-better-than-discipline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Breathing Space\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/revgregsmith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-12T13:01:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-07T15:03:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1467\/2022\/08\/Discipleship-is-Better-than-Discipline-782x411-1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gregory T. 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