Facing Up to Church Discipline

A Church Discipline Primer
By Jonathan Leeman | 9Marks Journal: Church Discipline (Part 1) | 03.01.2010A reluctance to practice church discipline may suggest that we believe ourselves to be wiser and more loving than God.
More Than Worth It: Costs and Benefits of Church Discipline
By Wyman Richardson | 9Marks Journal: Church Discipline (Part 1) | 03.01.2010It’s worth reminding ourselves as pastors what we stand to lose if we neglect biblical church discipline.
Church Discipline in Historical and Cultural Perspective
Was Dagg Right?
By Gregory A. Wills | 9Marks Journal: Church Discipline (Part 1) | 03.01.2010There is no simple correlation between a church’s disobedience on the one hand and spiritual blight and abandonment by Christ on the other.

Informed Consent: Biblical and Legal Protection for Church Discipline
By Ken Sande | 9Marks Journal: Church Discipline: Medicine for the Body | 02.25.2010By updating your governing documents with these kinds of provisions, you can strengthen your ability to obey God’s command to restore straying sheep.
Discipline in the Mainline – Is it Possible or Even Wise?
By Kevin DeYoung | 9Marks Journal: Church Discipline (Part 1) | 02.25.2010Discipline is possible, on a congregational and on a denomination-wide level. I’ve witnessed it with my own eyes. But it is rare and difficult.
Church Discipline Resources
Polity on Church Discipline: A User’s Guide
By Bobby Jamieson | 9Marks Journal: Church Discipline (Part 1) | 02.25.2010If you’re a pastor trying to obey Jesus by implementing church discipline, there are few books that will aid you the way Polity will.

Book Review: The Transforming Community, by Mark Lauterbach
Review by Jonathan Leeman | 9Marks Journal: Church Discipline (Part 1) | 03.02.2010If you’re not careful, Lauterbach’s book just might cause a paradigm shift in how you think about grace and the gospel, as well as how you think about the church.

Book Review: Discipline with Care, by Steven McQuoid
Review by Jonathan Leeman | 9Marks Journal: Church Discipline (Part 1) | 03.02.2010Discipline with Care is a good book on church discipline that will strengthen churches by promoting their holy witness.
Miscellaneous Book Reviews

Book(s) Review: Who Runs the Church? and Perspectives on Church Government
Review by Bobby Jamieson | 9Marks Journal: Church Discipline (Part 1) | 03.02.2010Multiple-views books like this provide a perfect opportunity—an opportunity neither book fully makes good on—to set the record straight about positions that are not mutually exclusive.

Book Review: Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches, ed. by Thomas White, Jason G. Deusing, and Malcomb B. Yarnell, III
Review by Greg Gilbert | 9Marks Journal: Church Discipline (Part 1) | 09.02.2002Allen’s chapter aside, this book is a generally well-articulated statement of some important Baptist distinctives.

Book Review: Organic Church, by Neil Cole
Review by Kevin McFadden | 9Marks Journal: Church Discipline (Part 1) | 03.02.2010You may find this book helpful if you are a church planter, particularly in urban environment, but you’ll need to buttress it with books that have a more solid biblical ecclesiology.

Book Review: Crazy Love, by Francis Chan
Review by Patrick Schreiner | 9Marks Journal: Church Discipline (Part 1) | 03.02.2010This book is a useful prod for anyone who treats Christianity as if it only means intellectually assenting to a set of facts, but not something that changes your life.

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