As a pastor, sometimes there are meetings with people that you dread.
Not long ago I was contemplating such a meeting. Years previously a couple had left the church as their marriage was on the brink of breaking up.
We had never really known where Jason stood spiritually. His wife Naomi was a good solid Christian, who had stuck with Jason through sporadic infidelities but had understandably come to the end of her tether with a new affair. There were some pretty tense, not to say bruising, counselling sessions. We elders, who don’t always manage to get everything right, had done our best to remonstrate with Jason but to no avail. We saw no option but for church discipline for him and, in the aftermath, the family had left us.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …