Church Discipline and the Lord's Supper

In general, I agree with you. Pastoral counseling must have confidentiality. In the case under discussion, we are talking about a former member who resigned during the disciplinary process. The meeting with the pastor is not your normal pastoral counseling session. He is dealing with a problem related to the life of the church, and the church is entitled to know how it came out.

 

I'm perfectly willing to trust my pastor to say yea or nay in this situation. but I believe the church needs to know which one he said. As a member, I don't need to know all the juicy details, just the decision.

The pastor would be wise, however, to share his thinking with the deacons--or elders, as the case may be. There is always going to be somebody in the church who won't agree, and support from his leaders will provide cover for him.

Our deacons don't run our church. We are servants. We work with and for our pastor. But he and we are accountable to our congregation and to each other.

If in doubt, "tell it to the church."