{"id":609,"date":"2009-05-06T14:53:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-06T21:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=609"},"modified":"2009-05-06T14:53:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-06T21:53:00","slug":"ecclesiastical-discipline-uprightly-ministered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=609","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiastical Discipline Uprightly Ministered"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I know that most Presbyterian branches have the Westminster Confession as their confessional standard, but regular readers know that I prefer the notes of the True Church found in the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cresourcei.org\/creedscots.html\">Scots Confession<\/a> which, in addition to the &#8220;true preaching of the Word of God&#8221; and the &#8220;right administration of the sacraments&#8221; adds<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>and lastly, ecclesiastical discipline<br \/>\nuprightly ministered, as God&#8217;s word prescribes, whereby vice is<br \/>\nrepressed and virtue nourished<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As part of the Reformed stream we acknowledge the significance of sin and the necessity of holding each other accountable.&nbsp; We recognize the need for confession, repentance and restoration.&nbsp; Ecclesiastical discipline is not punitive but restorative, that is &#8220;virtue nourished.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With that introduction I want to refer you to the story of one PCA presbytery and a disciplinary proceeding it was involved in brought to us by <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/calvingroupie.blogspot.com\/2009\/05\/back-from-presbytery.html\">Kevin at Reformed and Loving It<\/a>.&nbsp; (Kevin, thank you for this.) Here is a story of ecclesiastical discipline and restorative grace &#8212; It is about a minister who was under censure with supervised rehabilitation.&nbsp; I encourage you to read all of the story, but the heart of the story, and what is really the heart of the Gospel, is contained in these lines:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>At the last presbytery [the minister] asked the presbytery to demit the ministry.<br \/>\nToday we voted on it. Before the motion was voted on, I offered an<br \/>\namendment asking that the presbytery, taking his demission as an<br \/>\nevidence of repentance, lift his censure and restore him to the Lord&#8217;s Supper. The amendment (and main motion) passed unanimously. The man broke down in tears. He saw this as we did: a step of restoration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I know that most Presbyterian branches have the Westminster Confession as their confessional standard, but regular readers know that I prefer the notes of the True Church found in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,98,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-discipline","category-pca","category-polity"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ecclesiastical Discipline Uprightly Ministered - The GA Junkie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=609\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ecclesiastical Discipline Uprightly Ministered - 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