Church Discipline, Anathema/Excommunication: Can a Church be Christian without formal discipline?
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A church is known for it's authority. Spiritual authority. Of course there are bible studies and prayer groups, which are both helpful and edifying.
But until there is spiritual authority, there is no "church" per se.
In a real church everyone has the opportunity to speak and to minister. The Holy Spirit is present. Authority is there to watch over the proceedings...allowing all to participate. It is when there is no spiritual authority that there is fear to let everyone speak. Like the sunday churches where it is man-controlled and the controllers are fearful of allowing any kind of spirit participate. Even the Holy Spirit.
But until there is spiritual authority, there is no "church" per se.
In a real church everyone has the opportunity to speak and to minister. The Holy Spirit is present. Authority is there to watch over the proceedings...allowing all to participate. It is when there is no spiritual authority that there is fear to let everyone speak. Like the sunday churches where it is man-controlled and the controllers are fearful of allowing any kind of spirit participate. Even the Holy Spirit.
Please define what you belief a Christian is and also what you belief a Christian Church would teach?
What does it mean to be Christian? There are definitely some very dedicated Christians in the RCC. All the sects have Christians among them.
However I don't believe you can make a denomination "Christian? Did Jesus die for an organization? A country can't be Christian either. One is a Christian by following Christ. That is an individual thing. A church is a grouping of individuals....coming together. NOT an organization looking to feed off of people. So then a denominational entity is the antithesis of church.
We have to keep it simple. God is looking for relationship with individuals and groupings of individuals...NOT organizations.
The Church is all of the individual born-again believers in Christ. When they gather together in a fellowship they form a local group of believers who each have gifts of the Holy Spirit, whereby they function as a group. Thus those who have gifts of leadership, pastors, teachers, become the leaders of that Church.
If the leadership does not believe in or just refuses to exercise discipline, they are still Christian. But, they will be affected by the lack of discipline.
And, yes, the Roman Church is Christian.
Stranger.
If the leadership does not believe in or just refuses to exercise discipline, they are still Christian. But, they will be affected by the lack of discipline.
And, yes, the Roman Church is Christian.
Stranger.
Sometimes formal discipline is needed, and a church should be able/willing to institute it. The specifics of who/when/how vary, but all of the dozens of denominations I have visited have had some system in place, even though they rarely came into play.
No duh. Let us not turn this into denomination bashing thread #2634.
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I don't think the "Roman Church" is Christian.
For centuries they have taught the doctrine of Transubstantiation.
They, as a church, worship a physical object: the bread and wine.
Christians worship Christ, who cannot be seen. So, the Catholic Eucharist is an idol.
In the book of Jeremiah chapter 2, God is speaking through Jeremiah saying: 27. "They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’
and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ "
That is pretty close to what The Catholic Church is doing:can a wafer be one's Father or give birth?
There is no organization that is Christian. The Protestant sect has just as many aberrations...they are just less visible.
So you are going down a rabbit trail here.
Next you'll be telling us to vote republican and that Trump is the messiah and such...
That is totally unrelated to your thread title.
And again, let's not have denomination-bashing thread #293523
Hi tabletalk,
Curious, is this thread to be about discipline in the church or about communion?
Much love!
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Discipline. If you are a member of a Church, will it practice church discipline if needed? Are you confident your Pastor/Elders are watching over you?
It is not a church leader's job to spy on you. Rather, to help you through the repentance process, which sometimes does involve some discipline.
Our pastors and elders can only watch over a flock they know, in the way I believe you mean.
Small churches can do this. The larger the church group, the less so, to my thinking. Those who live with us know us. Others know us to the extent of what we show them, and what God shows them.
If we are not self-revelatory, others will not know the real us.
I'm confident my pastors and elders are watching over me, as best they can, and I try to help them, by letting them know me, including when I'm having problems.
Much love!
Mark
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The knowing of the flock of which you speak should be via the Holy Spirit common to all members. This is the Life Blood of the Body of Christ. The Blood purges and/or cleanses that which is filthy or defiled, while the Blood also delivers the proper nourishment of the Word of God [eat his flesh and drink his blood].
In small churches it may seem to be an easier thing but really if the connection is there from Christ the Head to all of the individual parts via the Holy Spirit the means exists no matter how large the group. The difference in difficulty between small and large groups is NOT a difficulty for God, but for man who is trying to do God's work without being led always by the Holy Spirit.
"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14:26
"Quench not the Spirit." I Thess 5:19
CoreIssue
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I do agree with you, I just think I've seen it more in smaller groups. I think it may have to do with that those who aspire to greatness don't waste their time in our Friday Night Bible Study. They want the mega church.
But I'm not broadbrushing here.
Much love!
Hi Amadeus,
I'm reminded of one of my pastors telling the story some years ago, that his wife one night told him that one of the elders was having an affair. She had received a word of knowledge.
They began to pray.
A few months later, this man came to the pastor, and confessed to it. They were all prepared for him, and helped to restore him.
God is definitely bigger than all of us together!
Much love!
Mark
Perhaps we are more likely to see a small physical group with most or even all person yielded to the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit would not be restricted to physically connected group of people. People who cannot perceive one another with the physical five senses could and should still be connected to each other and to the Head by the Holy Spirit. The larger groups physically are more likely to resemble those at the Tower of Babel [Gen 11] building together in the wrong spirit.
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