"PASTORAL THEOLOGY & PRACTICE" PROF. HAROLD SENKBEIL & DR. RICHARD WARNECK CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY: CAPTION FIRST, INC. P.O. BOX 1924 Lombard, IL 60148 1-800-825-7234 * * * * * This is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in Order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings * * * * * >> DAVID: What is the purpose of such admonishment or discipline? And how does the church go about such a ministry? I try to ask that carefully. I believe such admonishment should be ministerial in nature, but I'll admit that I'm not sure how to accomplish that. I'm nervous about balancing law and Gospel, about reaching out with both conviction and love at the same time. >> DR. WARNECK: David, your sensitivities are to be commended. I think very highly of the way you put that question because you are certainly aware that any steps the church takes in discipline of an individual can be misconstrued either by the church or by the person on the receiving end of that care as the heavy hand of the law. And I appreciated your suggestion, at least, in the question that the Gospel really should prevail in this ministry and, indeed, that's very good and you're really on to some beautiful care and pastoral practice for your people. The purpose of church discipline, as we comprehend it, as part of the ministry of the office of the keys is ever and only restoration of a repentant sinner in the strength of the forgiveness of sins through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is where we really want to move people. What stands in their way frequently is not only the sin itself that, of course, is so diminishing, public sin of one form or another, but it occasionally is unrepentance or insensitivity or just plain belligerence on the part of some Christians when they have fallen into great and grievous sin. So the church attempts to surround them and embrace them with the good word of the Gospel. Certainly the word of the law that is honest in its assessment of what has happened. And we try to help them see the sin for what it is. It's offensiveness. Not only to their fellow man, to themselves, but how all of this offends and disappoints our holy and gracious God. But then to come with the Gospel of forgiveness. Okay. So we're attempting to move people toward restoration. How to go about this ministry? The Lord has given us a paradigm or a pattern in Matthew Chapter 15. In fact, his words are explicit and he really has three sayings here that will guide us along the way. Let's look at them briefly and make a comment or two. And I think things will fall in place in answer to your question about how the church should proceed. First, Jesus says in verse 15, "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone." The subject here may be a fault between two Christians, yes, but the larger application would be the circumstances we've been dealing with, namely public sin in the church. It can be that, as well. So the object here is to gain the brother through repentance and then restoration through the Gospel, as we've said. But the pastor takes an approach here that is a bit hands off at this point, let me suggest, David. And perhaps I can explain with an example, if you will. A person comes to you and wants to meet with you and declares, "Pastor, did you hear about so-and-so in our congregation? Why, last Saturday night, he was seen coming out of a bar, and he had a woman on each arm as he was exiting this place where there's drinking and carousing and so on." So the person reporting this to the pastor wants the pastor, now, to get up and go out and take the initiative and confront this man. What did Jesus say? If your brother sins, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Now here's an individual comes to the pastor with some amount of hear say complicated by some innuendos. And the pastor will not just simply take that report at face value and act on it and go out and search for this supposed man who came out of the bar on Saturday night and confront him and everything else. The first thing he'll say is, to the person who came with the report, "This is your fellow Christian. And you have heard this. Have you gone to this individual? Have you spoken with him about what looks to be maybe kind of a seemy thing going on?" If the individual backs off, "Oh, no, I haven't done that," well, the pastor might encourage the individual to exercise Christian care in the first person before coming and asking the pastor to get involved. I think the pastor's in his rights to direct this reporting individual in that way. So the point here is that individual Christians care for one another when they observe what might appear to be public sin in one another's lives. That's the first point. The only exception to this, or a couple of exceptions might be for instance, David, when the church has a Christian school and the children are there during the school hours five days a week and a boy or girl in the sixth or seventh grade comes upon a situation on the playground or in the buildings and it appears to these children that there is something not savory about how a couple of teachers might be conducting themselves. It's very difficult for children to admonish their superiors even though they are fellow Christians. They might come to the pastor and the pastor might, then, act upon a report like that and just make an inquiry as a shepherd to the children and a shepherd to the teachers and the people involved. It might also be true for an employee, say a customs towed I don't know on the premises sees another employee in the church in some unsavory situation. Once again, it's difficult for employees in a setting like that, so the pastor might get involved. But those would be some unusual circumstances. Normally we ask an individual Christian who is concerned about the life of another children to counsel and admonish themselves. All right. That brings us to Jesus' second saying, "But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses." Okay. Let's say the individual, being admonished, blows off the concern of his or her fellow Christian, then maybe it's time to get a couple of other Christians involved. And by the term "witness" here, as Luther has commented on this subject, it does not necessarily mean that the others have to be witness to a particular action. The term witness may be that these other Christians can attest to the care that the first Christian gave to the erring individual and witness in that regard. So the purpose, then, is beyond one Christian, two or three, and the impact of their concern, their admonishment urging a person in sin to repent and to avail themselves of the forgiveness of God, that's step two. Okay. Now, let's say a husband comes home from work and has dinner with his wife, which she has prepared for him and their two teenage daughters, and at 7:00 after dinner, goes down the street one block, two blocks down the next way and he stays overnight with his mistress. Comes back in the morning, 6:00, showers up, goes off to work. Does this two or three times ray week. Fellow Christians are aware of it. And he's been admonished by a number of his fellow Christians, step two. Belligerent. Isn't going to change. None of your business. Then perhaps it's time to tell this matter to the church, as Jesus says in his third step. "If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, let it be to you a Gentile and a tax collector," verse 17. Okay. So we're moving along in procedure here, if you will, David. This third and final step in admonition follows upon persistent denial of the sin or persistent impenitence by the erring person. The matter is brought to the church, which in our modern times may be the voter's assembly or perhaps the board of elders. But the matter is brought there and then the church takes action. And the procedure is that they invite the erring person to meet with them to confront the erring person with the sin and the obvious impenitence and with a view to helping this individual really get the point that persisting in what he or she is doing can be deleterious to their Christian faith. In fact, if they persist in belligerent sin and deliberate sin, they may even lose their faith. So the church is very concerned about them. And that's the purpose for this meeting. Now, let's emphasize before it comes to this, we can go back to steps 1 and 2. This procedure that Jesus sets out in Matthew 18 is not strike one, strike two, strike three and you're out. It isn't that at all. The church can take its time, be patient. Those involved in step two and step one before can be encouraged to continue to work with the erring person. But perhaps something has to happen for the welfare of this individual. When the church meets on this matter and finally things are kind of coming to a head, there are three things that are established when the church takes this matter up and the first is that the sin itself is established and verified, that is. Secondly, that the care fellow Christians have given in the past has actually happened. And that should be verified and established. And, thirdly, the unfortunate response of the erring individual needs to be established; namely, his or her impenitence. And that's the thing that needs to be dealt with. There apparently is no softening of the heart. There is no evidence of contrition. And, so the church cannot announce the absolution. In fact, it's coming to a point where the church's hands are tied, not able to say "your sins are forgiven." it may have to say because of your impenitence, your sins are not forgiven and you're pursuing the life of a non-Christian. And, finally, then, if that's the case, the church proceeds in the direction of excommunication, which is a public declaration that an erring Christian who has resisted the care offered by the church in the name of the Lord Jesus and for the sake of the Gospel is essentially not a Christian anymore, at least not as can be evidenced by his life and what he says and by what he is doing. And, finally, the church may have to say that and comes to that very last step. But even then we should understand that the effect of excommunication, should it ever come to that, is on behalf of the erring person, that he or she might really get the point, finally, that the way he or she is living their life is simply not Christian. And instead of being helpful, very harmful to himself or herself. Okay. So I have outlined just in very brief sketch the procedure of church discipline, which our churches follow in instances of admonishment and hopefully restoration. But short of that, the other direction of excommunication. This we should add in closing on this particular point. If at any time in a procedure like this an erring person wants to come to the pastor, let us say. And you're the pastor, David, and the person comes to you and says, "Pastor, I'm really weary of everything. And I also am sorry about it all. And I'd really like to get this all straightened out." and the pastor responds in a helpful way, "Well let's do just that, my friend. Let's get this thing straightened out. Let's lay the cards on the table. What are we dealing with here? We're dealing with sin, which can be so destructive for you. And the church has extended her care for you." And the person responds and says, "That's right, pastor, I really think I see the point now and I'd like to just say I am sorry and I am repentant and I want you to know that. And I've had a turnaround and I want to be received back into the fellowship and good standing. I don't want to be on the outside of things. And I want to straighten this out." The pastor speaks the absolution. God bless in the name of Jesus, your sins are forgiven. Let's go on from here. Those sins are removed as far as the east is from the west. And the pastor can then report this action to the board of elders or even the voters' Assembly, and that settles the matter. The person has repented. After all, that's the object of the whole disciplinary procedure. That's happened. Praise the Lord. And we go on from there. I just wanted to add that because somehow we need to convey to these people who are being admonished that that open door is there. And your style of pastoral ministry, David, will probably communicate that better than anything, that a person being admonished in the church always has the opportunity to come across that threshold and sit down with you as their shepherd and get this matter settled. So I wish you God's blessings in this ministry. When you see the Gospel at work in these situations, David, that's the greatest thing in the world. * * * * * This is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in Order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings * * * * *