Grounds for excluding a brother (name a few)

I believe a "willful" sin is one that someone does without any remorse at that time. Whenever I sin, I do so with the grieving of the Holy Ghost. Is that definition sufficient?

 

Is this the verse you are getting your question from?

Hebrews 10:26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins,



Could you give more detail in your question?

 

Now, to answer the question posted in your title:

Infidelity
Drunkenness
Lying
Stealing
Murdering

I know some of these people may think would be extreme, but they are not "fruits of the Spirit", and need to be address accordingly.

Some have been excluded for "petty" reasons such as women not wearing a dress to church, women cutting their hair, women wearing makeup....for some reason, men seem to have a longer leash in the ORBs than women do, and that's not fair!! I hope this helps, and may God bless you!!

i am I AM's!!

Willis

 

Non-attendance and non-support. If it lasts for a significant amount of time, they've already disfellowshipped the church. Removing their name from the roll confirms their own desire.

 

And the key isn't a one-time or periodic "purge," but an ongoing, Matthew 18-type of discipline...carried out in the incremental steps Christ gave us.

This allows grace and a chance for restoration when possible.

 

Yes.

Church discipline should always be redemptive rather than punitive.

 

Your list is in line with the example in Corinthians where Paul tells the church to exclude the man having an affair with his father's wife. I do not know if you can go strictly by a list, but a sin of that magnitude maybe along with it being common knowledge in the community would be justification. The steps in Matthew must be followed regardless of the situation.

Now, as far as the frivolous things people have been excluded for (how about investing in the stock market or someone dancing with their wife), to disfellowship a person for such nonsense is using a local church lead by Jesus Christ in an unspiritual manner, to be nice about it. In reality, it is a sin that should be charged to the entire local church. What is even worse than that, is making the disfellowshipped people repent for something that needed no repentance in order to be part of fellowship again. Things like that have been tolerated in the past, and no doubt still go on. It is up to mature Christians in each congregation to use caution in any church discipline.

 

The OP asked what is willful sin. Does anybody have an answer to that?

 

Of course, disfellowshipping "a" particular church could have a lot different meaning than disfellowshipping "the" church. Removal from a "particular" church roll just doesn't seem to justify such a claim about knowing the intent or desire.

 

A number of good reasons for church discipline have been submitted here, but has anyone been in a church when a member was disciplined? It hasn't happened in my church for more than 50 years (probably longer) and I'm pretty sure it hasn't happened in our association for more than 50 years.

 

Not at our church in over fifty years, and even when done, as I gave the reasons in an above post, the actions were totally unjustified. Today, we only exercise church discipline in the sense of taking people who have not shown up in decades off the rolls.

 

Point taken. But in as many cases as possible, we seek to ascertain their situation. If we can find them.

But after a year or more of absence, it doesn't require rocket science to guess their intent. People who desire to attend, attend.

If they ticked off at the church for some reason, I can live with that. But that rings hollow if they aren't serving somewhere else where they're not ticked off.

 

Was this done according to the steps in Matthew 18 or some other way? What exactly were the consequences of the discipline? Removal from the church roll? Exclusion from coming on the premises? Exclusion from holding any office in the church? Admonishment? Other? Also, did any form of discipline result in the member repenting of his/her offense?

 

Do you mean "shunning" them?

 

Ann...

Yikes!