A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Calvin Brown is pastor of Nelson and Slocan Churches, B.C.
Healing the Wounded: The Costly Love of Church Discipline. John White and Ken Blue. InterVarsity Press.
The title of this book is most appropriate and the theme most appreciated. As a convinced Calvinist who agrees full-heartedly that the true marks of the Church include church discipline. I recommend this book as one long overdue. If the reforms White and Blue remind us of were instituted in the spirit which they suggest our churches would be renewed and envigorated. That is the good news! The bad news is that there is a heavy cost in terms of time, energy and perhaps even money when this healing love of church discipline is introduced. There is also the reality as White notes that we shall only “function as true churches when we reintroduce church discipline.”
If there is a flaw in the book it is the attempt to contrast two good things rather than see them both as necessary. In emphasizing in one chapter the prime importance of reconciliation as the object of church discipline, they contrast it to John Calvin’s apparent goal of discipline as the purity of the church. In fairness, they attempt to provide their own corrective saying, “Calvin never saw purity of church as an end in itself but [desired to do] all to the glory of God.” In the next section they deal with the necessary holiness of the church. Surely for all Christians the bottom line is always to do all for the glory of God. Both reconciliation and purity are but expressions of God’s glory which alone is the one true goal. Reconciliation as a goal may lead, as the authors themselves point out, to a compromise of purity, and seeing purity as an end in itself can lead to harshness of judgement. It is not our righteousness (purity) nor is it our fellowship (reconciliation) but God’s glory that is at stake. Perhaps in the context of the sixteenth century the greatest challenge to God’s glory was a morally impure church, and in the context of the twentieth century and our individualistic values, the greatest danger is a divided and alienated church lacking the grace of reconciliation. Both, of course, are vital to the whole mix if God is to be glorified in His church.
As the authors conclude, the point of wrong spirit is the real issue, not the issue of purity or reconciliation, which are both equally essential.
Many basic components of the gospel are brought up in this book and in many ways it is a book that simply tells “how to” live out the gospel in practical terms. It challenges churches – leaders and lay people alike – to a biblical discipline, noting that discipline by the community rather than merely by the authority of church leaders is a vital part in understanding biblical discipline that restores sinners. The authors also present a useful discussion on the value of confession, public and private, and the issues surrounding confidentiality. The examples of Joe, and Robert Tyler are useful and important to raise the book out of the merely theoretical realm. “Both men responded to something God was doing … If we are not aware of God’s initiative or if we fail to expect it, we may never see the glory of transformed lives. Our expectations will be low.”
The analysis of the principal scriptures dealing with church discipline is a vital part to any competent book on the subject and the authors have taken the texts seriously.
Throughout the book, the necessity and benefits of church discipline are set forth in a gently challenging way. I conclude with one of their own gentle challenges: “Extreme discipline does not always work. We don’t carry it out because it works. We carry it out because Christ teaches us to carry it out, and we try to do so in the manner and in the spirit and with the aims he taught.”