Position of the Providence Church Elders:

Church Discipline

In keeping with the elders' position on church membership, we believe that the Word of God requires the people of God to care for the spiritual condition of one another. We are to stir each other to prayer and good works (Heb. 10:24), weep and rejoice with each other (Rom. 12:15), admonish one another (Col. 3:16), comfort one another (1 Thess. 4:18), bear one another's burdens (Gal. 6:2), strengthen the brothers, (Luke 22:32) and many others.

An integral part of caring for our brothers and sisters is not allowing them to continue in soul-destroying sin without grave warning and exhortation (1 Thess. 5:14; Heb 3:13). To this end, we will mold our discipline of church members after Scripture, keeping in mind that the design of all discipline is restoration of fellowship.

Types of Discipline

Informal or Formative Church Discipline: Informal or formative discipline is applied by an individual or multiple members of the church without the formal action of the elders or the church as a body. The elders will, through teaching and example, encourage the members of the congregation to discipline themselves and one another through the following practices:
a. Self-discipline: Exercising self-control or applying self-correction;
b. Overlooking the minor failings of others in love (1 Peter 4:8);
c. Informal admonishment: Encouraging one another to faithfulness and warning others in love to guard their hearts and minds against specific temptations and sins (Matthew 18:15).

Formal or Corrective Church Discipline: If informal discipline does not result in satisfactory correction, then those who are aware of the need for discipline are expected to call the matter to the attention of the elders. In the case of open and scandalous sin, there is no requirement to attempt private resolution of the matter, and it should be brought to the elders without delay. Formal or corrective discipline will be pursued only after scriptural prerequisites have been satisfied and the elders have made sufficient inquiry. In extraordinary situations, the elders have the authority to take immediate disciplinary action if the honor of Christ or the purity or unity of the church are directly threatened by a failure to act. Formal church discipline is applied through the formal action and unanimous judgment of the elders. Formal discipline generally entails the following actions under the authority and oversight of the elders:

a. Formal Private Admonishment: When a brother or sister is in sin and remains unrepentant, rejecting informal admonition, one or two members of the church, appointed by the elders, will formally admonish them in private, pleading earnestly for their repentance and solemnly warning them of the dire spiritual consequences and judgment that may follow if they fail to repent (Matthew 18:16).

b. Formal Public Admonishment: In some cases, considering the gravity and scandalous nature of the sin, the elders may decide to admonish and warn the brother or sister publicly so that they may be ashamed and repent (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15).

c. Suspension: In some cases, considering the gravity or scandalous character of the sin, the elders may decide to suspend the brother from positions of responsibility or leadership, or from normal fellowship so that they may be ashamed and repent (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15).

d. Excommunication: When all other informal and formal measures and admonishments have failed to bring about the desired repentance, or in extraordinary situations where the honor of Christ or the purity or unity of the church demand immediate action, the elders must proceed to formally charge the brother or sister of specific, willful, and unrepentant violations of God's Law. The elders will bring these charges before the entire congregation, and the entire congregation will act in obedience to the Scriptures to excommunicate the unrepentant individual. Excommunication means being excluded from the Lord's Table and being regarded as an unbeliever.

Immediate expulsion

There may be a case of scandalous sin where the elders must, for the sake of the church, expel a member without taking the first three steps of Formal Discipline. The elders will inform the church as soon as practicable after the offence and discipline. This is patterned after Paul's excommunication of a brother in the church at Corinth (1 Cor. 5:1-5) and will be administered only in the most extreme situations.

Subjects and Nature of Discipline

Members: All church members, by uniting with Providence and committing to the Church Covenant, agree to both give and receive church discipline as it is needed. This applies to children who are members as well, although the elders will seek to work with the child's parents as possible, taking into account the age and circumstances of the child

Non-members: Professing Christians who attend the church regularly, but who are not members, may be rebuked, but not excommunicated.

Professing Christians under discipline by other churches: If another church has disciplined one of its members, and that person subsequently comes to our church, then the elders will decide whether to honor the discipline of the other church after due consultation with the person concerned and after all appropriate information is obtained from the disciplining church.

Restoration

Excommunication shall be ended when, in the unanimous opinion of the elders, the one under discipline has been restored through repentance and rededication, or conversion. The elders will read a confession by the individual under discipline to the congregation on the Lord's Day, and the elders will announce the end of the disciplinary action to the church.

Various Saints on Discipline

Private admonitions must always go before public censures; if gentler methods will do the work, those that are more rough and severe must not be used, Titus 3:10. Those that will be reasoned out of their sins need not be shamed out of them. Let God's work be done effectually, but with as little noise as may be; his kingdom comes with power, but not with observation.
Matthew Henry

Where the church acts rightly, it has the solemn sanction of God; this lesser tribunal on earth shall have its decrease sanctioned by the great tribunal above. Hence it becomes a very serious matter, this binding and loosing which Christ has given to his Church.
C. H. Spurgeon

Some sins are mere delinquencies, others crimes are flagrant iniquities. In correcting the latter, it is necessary to employ not only admonition or rebuke, but a sharper remedy, as Paul shows when he not only verbally rebukes the incestuous Corinthian, but punishes him with excommunication, as soon as he was informed of his crime (1 Cor. 5:4).
John Calvin

We should think no pains too much to take for the recovering of a sinner to repentance. "Tell him his fault, remind him of what he has done, and of the evil of it, show him his abominations."
Matthew Henry