I wrote a four-part series on ecclesiastical discipline in previous articles, so I won’t repeat on the subject in this article (if you want to read the series, click here [soon in Portuguese]).
In a word:
- All of this seems clear.
- But unfortunately life (and sin) do not work very well.
- There are many factors that can hinder the process.
- During my 18 years in office.
- I have experienced the following:.
There are many other examples you could cite: there is one problem in the UK: small churches and/or churches that are being established, desperate for people on banks, will accept almost everyone in a desperate attempt to look like growth. They will accept the presence of someone because they really have no control over who attends their churches in the sense of knowing them or knowing their background The end result is almost always the same Those who are subject to discipline and / or who jump from congregation to congregation with impunity, cause disorder and then pass on to their next innocent victims (but not entirely innocent).
Therefore, the challenge for pastors is to take some responsibility in the current situation. We must remind church members of their responsibility to make sure they look for wolves among the sheep. The problem has become even more urgent recently at a 20-church implementation meeting. We discovered that an excommunicated man from our church began to go to one of the plantations on the other periphery. As I write, another of our excommunicated members is participating in a church other than our ministry. The question is how church implementers should. and we, as an excommunicated church, react, how do we treat these people?
How do we treat those who have been excommunicated from a church when they start dating ours?
We, the churches on the periphery, in particular, have to be careful, because we have so few members that anyone who walks on Sundays can be tempting for us. Such is our desire to have mature believers that we can confuse knowledge and character and pay a high price for this error, we want to be places of refuge for the wounded and marginalized, but we also want to protect our sheep from the wolves that roam the stage of the evangelical church, that God will help us to be faithful to the scriptures , may it grant us love, patience and wisdom in these areas.