For years now, Mark Dever and Matt Schmucker have been telling pastors, “If you want to lead your church to practice biblical church discipline, you have to teach about it first. Use your weekly pulpit, your Sunday School classes, and your church newsletter to teach members about discipline. Hand out books on church discipline to key leaders.” And so on. If you think you can jump right into practicing discipline without teaching about it first, you may want to update your resume first.

Now, let me follow their lead and extend the point. If you want to lead your church to practice biblical church discipline, you have to lead your congregation to a deeper understanding of the gospel and of conversion.

If the members of a church only understand the gospel partially, that is, the gospel as

• “Jesus is the one who fills the God-shaped hole in our hearts,”
• “Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for our lives,”
• “Jesus has come to declare God’s kingdom and make everything new,”
• “God will bless and prosper us if you only believe that he will,”
• “Jesus came to show us how we need to love others,”
• “If you say the sinner’s prayer, you won’t go to hell,”
• “Jesus came to give us purpose and life abundant,”

then the idea of removing someone from the congregation for unrepentant sin is far less likely to make sense to them.

If the members of a church only understand conversion partially, that is, conversion as

• “just believe,”
• “just pray these words after me,”
• “we’re all on a journey,”
• “it’s not about sin-management, it’s about following Jesus,”

Then the idea of removing someone from the congregation for unrepentant sin is far less likely to make sense to them.

In order for the idea of removing someone from the congregation for unrepentant sin to make sense, a congregation will be greatly served by having a deepening grasp of the following aspects of the gospel and conversion:

• Christ came to purchase a people out of sin, so that we will sin no more.
• God calls his people to be holy because he is holy.
• We’ve been baptized into the death of Jesus so that the body of sin might be done away with.
• We’ve been baptized into the death of Jesus so that we might be raised again to new life.
• Through the new covenant, God actually changes people—he gives them new hearts and new desires.
• Christ calls his followers to repent and believe.
• A man cannot serve two masters.
• A house divided against itself will not stand.
• What good is salt that has lost its saltiness? It might as well be thrown out and trampled.
• Only he who perseveres to the end will be saved.
• Belonging to the king of God means that we have new allegiances; we submit to a new master and Lord. We’re not on a journey; we’re called to change allegiances.
• It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God.
• We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God.
• If anyone says “I love God” but hates his brother, he is a liar.
• This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.

I could keep going. But hopefully the point is clear. Church discipline makes sense to a congregation when it understands that the gospel has radical implications for our lives individually and corporately. God doesn’t save people just to save them. He saves them to change them and remake them into his own image. And the changes are part of what give proof to the work of salvation.

Bottom line, pastors: as you’re thinking about leading your church toward the practice of church discipline, assess your congregation’s understanding of the gospel and biblical conversion. Do they get it? If they don’t, you might have more work to do even before you begin to teach on church discipline.