Archive for April 25, 2013


Apr 25

What Is Church Discipline?

2013 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Recommended Resources

Church discipline is that loving process whereby God, through his people, addresses us in our sin for our restoration to him, to his people, and for his glory. Church discipline assumes a corporate aspect to our growth in godliness. It includes the most normal and easy of conversations with one another about how we may grow in faithfulness to God, but it may include any one of several steps outlined by Jesus in Matthew 18:15–18,

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

Since we’re all sinners, we should all expect to find ourselves on both sides of this process throughout the course of our Christian lives. But we should all pray for ourselves and for one another that we never see the later stages of this process, and for God’s grace to repent if we do. It should be clear that the issue that moves any of us from one step to another is not the initial sin we’ve committed but the sin of refusing to repent and turn to God.

So important is this process for the purity and health of the church that we have included a paragraph expressing our commitment to this in the DSC Covenant of Fellowship.

I expect and trust that as I lax in my commitment to these principles this body at Desert Springs Church will hold me accountable with reproof, rebuke and exhortation to keep me faithful to the commitment that I am making; and furthermore, as I commit myself to this fellowship, I realize that I am entrusted with the same obligation of mutual exhortation and encouragement. If I ever continue in my sin without true repentance, and do not hear the pleas and rebukes of my brothers and sisters in Christ, I implore this body to seek my spiritual restoration in proceeding in the steps of restoration and purity given by Jesus in Matthew 18:15-20.

If you would like to further explore the subject of church discipline, here are a few resources to check out: