Deacons must be held accountable

From reading the church discipline thread I can say notmany on this board believe in accountability.
I would say thogh that since it's your wife who works with the man, and not you, it would have to be her to tell the pastor anything, as she's witnessed it on a regular bases.
But I agree about accountability.

 

Ah, yes, Matthew 18, BBRV (Baptist Board Revised Version)
15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass, go and tell the pastor. If the pastor does not take action, you then go and tell the trespassing brother his fault.

 

Why is it so hard to follow Matthew? Step one, your wife goes to him and confronts him with it. If he repents and it stops, that is the end of it. It he does not, she takes another church member, (probably you or the pastor), and confronts him with his actions. If he repents and it stops, that is the end of it. If he does not repent, take it to the church.

 

Yes I agree with you but your church may argue he pays more in tithes than you do. (though I know churches really don't say that but I'm pretty sure they think it sometimes.)

 

The biblical method makes a lot more sense than it appears on the surface.

First, It gives the accused a chance to explain why he/she isn't wrong...

Secondly bringing someone else in allows for the possibility that the excuse or the defence isn't biased.

Finally bringing it to the church allows for correction to the accused OR the accusor.

In the stated case I would agree that Any person claiming to be a Christian should be confronted with habitual cursing.

Sorta kinda but not really Just aggrivating: its wrong to assume the Doc gives more than the OP'er. Hawg maybe wealthy, or he may give beyond what his means would show, or the doc might be stingy.

 

I think I would complain about the whole "deacon of the week" concept.

In initial reading, I tended to agree with Jerome and SaturnNeptune. But continuing to think about this, isn't this a public offense rather than private one? And that by an officer of the church. Is this common knowledge rather than just something between Hawg's wife and the doctor? There are other instances which describe a church taking action on a public offense in a different manner than the steps of Matthew 18 (e.g. I Cor. 5).

 

I agree with you on this. While everyone should be held accountable for their actions and words, those in any leadership position especially should. Unfortunately, we only see most Christians that we know during church services and know little or nothing about their home and work lives. My Dad was a good example of a hypocrite--a rotten, lousy, sorry-excuse-for-a-person at home and sweet as honey to everyone at church. They only saw his sweet side that he only showed at church and seldom at home; they didn't have to live with him.

I knew a pastor who was an excellent preacher and teacher of the word, but his son hated him, and his wife left him because of abuse. Before anyone is allowed to serve in any capacity in church, it might be a good idea to find out something about his home and work life if possible.

 

Did she not know he was a deacon until she saw he was "Deacon of the Week"?

 

Because people want to pass on their personal accountability to follow Matthew to the Pastor...

"Hey, the Pastor is our employee, it is his job to straighten people out"

 

Do they do that in WV too?

 

Not to change the subject. I'm a volunteer firefighter in my small town. My particular fire company does not have a bar or recreation (social) hall so the men do not hang out there and drink. At times though the language can get "loose" and it is a great struggle for me to stay above the normal behavior. I'm one of a very small number of believers in this group.

There is a man there who is an elder in his church, an independent community church with what I would call a fundamental doctrinal statement. The congragation is struggling big time and really cannot afford their weekend warrior pastor. Although I don't know this for fact, my best educated guess is that my friend is an elder because he is one the best of a very bad elder pool.

Now I don't claim to be able to see into this man's heart but I'm not totally blind either. I have been thinking about this for some time as my friend would like me to get involved with his church. I think if a person desires to be an elder or deacon he is in effect making a commitment to pray for the church and it's ministries and members and live a blameless life. This my friend is not doing and the result is that the local church is paying the cost. So, to keep from having to talk to the only other believer in the fire company, I have to stay away from him because I really don't want to have discussions with him about getting involved with his church. This has been really on my mind so pardon the rant.

In relation to the OP, I'm of the opinion that the church is the biggest victim if you will of men in leadership positions who don't meet the spirit of the qualifications in 1 Timothy and Titus. But it is in their way (the churches) fault because they have to know that this person isn't committed to living blameless and meeting for prayer on a regular basis.

Tom