Church Discipline
We are an independent, fundamental Baptist Church. As such we have no desire to go beyond our own area of judgment which is the Revival Baptist Church of Scranton. From time to time we have had to exercise that judgment as a congregation in the area of church discipline. As Paul instructed the Corinthians when one of their members was living in open fornication, “that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from you.”(I Corinthians 5:2) Later, this same member was received back into active fellowship with that same church after he repented and left that fornication that grieved the Lord and hurt His testimony.
From time to time one of our members must be placed upon discipline for fornication or some other anti Christian and anti Bible lifestyle choice and after some repeated confrontations such a person may not repent. This person is then voted by our church to be disciplined which means that he is not to attend the Lord’s table or the ministry of the word, nor to enjoy the communion of the saints until he repents of this life style choice. Our hope is that he would be ashamed and return to God’s narrow way and then back into active fellowship with his home church. We have seen this done successfully in our midst before.
We have no power over what your church does. My conviction is that if another church practices what I Corinthians 5 teaches and disciplines a member for Biblical reasons, then our church will not receive them for attendance, for the Lord’s table, and keeping close company with our members until or unless they repent and show it by making things right with their home church.
My only motive here is to protect you, your flock, and the testimony of the Lord in the community as to what kind of life style characterizes Bible believing, Bible preaching churches as well as to promote a real restoration of any erring believers. May the Lord help us practice church discipline as the Bible instructs us so that we may restore believers and send a clear message to the watching world!