Banned from Church

When I was in high school, I decided to start taking half-days my junior year, which evolved into full days off my senior year. No, my parents did not know about it, but they found out eventually and boy, was I in trouble! How did my Christian high school punish me? They suspended me from school! That’s showing me–I don’t want to go to school, so they retaliate by telling me I can’t come. It didn’t make a lot of sense.

Neither do some of the churches that the Wall Street Journal covers in the article, “Banned From Church” . The piece is all about how some conservative Protestant denominations have brought back the practice of church discipline, including excommunication. Speaker/author Dale Fincher first brought this article to my attention on his blog, so you can read his thoughts here.

There were some great stories in the article, that would have been laughable had they not been truth. The piece opens up with a 71 year-old lady getting hauled out of church by the police for trespassing (after the pastor called “911″ because you know this is a real emergency). Apparently, the little old lady had a big ol’ mouth and dared to speak out against the great and powerful pastor, so she was banned from the church she had attended for the past 50 years.

Here’s a quote from the article, “While many Christians find such practices outdated, pastors in large and small churches across the country are expelling members for offenses ranging from adultery and theft to gossiping, skipping service and criticizing church leaders.” This is where my lead-in story comes into play–you can get disciplined for skipping church. I mean, that’s a great excuse, “Hey, why didn’t you go to church today?” Answer: “Because last week the associate pastor was forced to call 911 when I showed up.” Gotta love church discipline that punishes people for skipping church by telling them they can’t go to church. I’m sure they start small and ban the sinners from potluck dinners first, then youth car washes, then small group, and finally from the Big Sunday Service itself.

Undoubtedly, the best quote from the article is this story about Lakeview Baptist Church in Alabama, “Once, when the congregation voted out an adulterer who refused to repent, an older woman was confused and thought the church had voted to send the man to hell.” Gee, the elderly can’t catch a break at these churches, can they?

I think adultery is sad, especially because it broke up my own family. But voting an adulterer out of church? Isn’t church one of the places this person could hear the truth? Obviously, God can work in people’s heart outside the walls of a building, but doesn’t this building exist to proclaim the gospel, to allow people to fellowship, to set the captives free?

The leaders of these churches point at Matthew 18 and say, “See, it’s right there!” Of course, if the congregants opened their Bibles to the book of Titus or a few of Paul’s letters (you know, the books that talk about the qualifications for elders, deacons, and pastors) and addressed the conduct of elders, the pastor, and other church authorities, they would be shunned before they could finish their first sentence.

Then there’s the problem of that rebel Jesus (thanks to Jackson Browne & Bebo Norman for that title). He liked to hang about with folks who had questionable moral character. Jesus even says so: “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” ‘ But wisdom is proved right by her actions” (Matt. 11:19).

Obviously, we need to find the ever touchy middle ground between turning our churches into temples of hypocrisy or crack houses. But that is why church leaders need to depend on the power and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit (Uh-oh! I mentioned the Third Person of the Trinity…I’m going all Pentecostal now!). Perhaps the most ignored Person in the Church today is the Holy Spirit, who is to guide us in decisions and help us know what to do when the going gets tough. He’s in the Bible, too. Both testaments.

Legalism never led man to God, nor did the gospel of prosperity. Perhaps we should throw both away, stop calling 911 on little old ladies, and get over ourselves. The problem is not just the people in the pews, but the people who wouldn’t be caught dead in the pews.