Church discipline is the practice of church members calling upon an individual within the Church to repent for their sins. Church discipline is performed when one has sinned or gone against the rules of the church. Church discipline is practiced with the intent to make the offender repent and be reconciled to God. It was also used to protect the other church members from the influence of sin, and to prevent other members from acting out.

The Bible's teaching on corrective church discipline

Ultimate authority resides in Christ, who authorizes the church to use it as needed. (Matthew 18:17) Corrective discipline is for: * Troublemakers and those who sow discord. (Romans 16:17) * The unruly and disorderly. (1 Thessalonians 5:14) * Those who disobey the great doctrines of the faith. (2 Thessalonians 3:13-14) * Those who deny the great doctrines of the faith. (1 Timothy 6:3-4) Procedures in discipline * Arrange a private meeting with the offender. (Matthew 18:15) * If a private meeting fails, meet with them and several witnesses. (Matthew 18:16) * Admonish and warn them. (Titus 3:10) * As a final resort, bring the matter up to the whole church. (Matthew 18:17) * Remove their membership, and avoid them. (Romans 16:17) * Be ready to forgive them when repentance occurs. (2 Corinthians 2:7) Purpose of discipline * To maintain the standards of the church to a watching world. (Matthew 5:13-16) * To keep sin from spreading throughout the church. (Joshua 7:3); (1 Corinthians 5:6-7) * Help the guilty person find their way to God. (2nd Corinthians 2:6-8) * To escape God's judgment upon habitually sinning saints. (1 Corinthians 11:30)

Practice by ecclesiastical tradition

Catholic Church discipline

The

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsible ...

is the oldest of the nine congregations of the Roman Curia. Among the most active of these major Curial departments, which oversees Catholic doctrine. The CDF is the modern name for what used to be the Holy Office of the Inquisition. According to Article 48 of the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, ''

Pastor Bonus ''Pastor bonus'' (Latin: "The Good Shepherd") is an apostolic constitution promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 28 June 1988. It instituted a number of reforms in the process of running the central government of the Catholic Church. The docume ...

'', promulgated by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

on June 28, 1988: "the duty proper to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world: for this reason everything which in any way touches such matter falls within its competence." The

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments it, Dicastero per il Culto Divino e la Disciplina dei Sacramenti , type = Dicastery , seal = Coat of arms Holy See.svg , seal_size = 100px , seal_caption = Coat of arms of the Holy See , logo = , p ...

is the congregation of the Roman Curia that handles most affairs relating to liturgical practices of the Latin Catholic Church as distinct from the Eastern Catholic Churches and also some technical matters relating to the Sacraments. In some contexts, ''church discipline'' may refer to the rules governing an ecclesiastical order, such as

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

s or

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

s, such as clerical celibacy.

Protestant church discipline

Along with preaching and proper administration of the sacraments, Protestants during the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

considered it one of the marks of a true church. Church discipline is mentioned several times in the Bible. In I Corinthians 5 and other passages, the Bible teaches that sin if not dealt with in a congregation can contaminate other members of the body of Christ, as leaven spreads through bread. This was an important doctrine in the development of different branches of the Plymouth Brethren movement. It is also an important topic of discussion in many churches today. The

Westminster Confession of Faith The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the "subordinate standard" ...

sees the three steps of church discipline as being "admonition", "suspension from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper for a season" and then finally

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

, xxx.4.

Latter-day Saints church discipline

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

, a

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

or a

stake president A stake is an administrative unit composed of multiple congregations in certain denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. The name "stake" derives from the Book of Isaiah: "enlarge the place of thy tent; stretch forth the curtains of thine ha ...

may hold a

church membership council In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), a church membership council (formerly called a disciplinary council) is an ecclesiastical event during which a church member's status is considered, typically for alleged violations ...

(formerly known as a "disciplinary council) to consider restrictions on or withdrawal of church membership for members who commit crimes or otherwise violate the standards of the church.

The Bible's teaching on corrective church discipline

Practice by ecclesiastical tradition

Catholic Church discipline

Protestant church discipline

Latter-day Saints church discipline

See also

References

Further reading