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The Village Church, a megachurch in the Dallas area with 11,000 members, recently denied a woman who wanted to find a new place of worship, the right to leave because she was “under discipline” for violating church rules and biblical law.
The church made the following statement via e-mail to its members:
“There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus and, therefore, no condemnation for Jordan. He has confessed his sin, and through the finished, redemptive work of Christ, Jordan is washed clean of all unrighteousness, met with forgiveness and granted fellowship with the body.”
It wasn't a total forgiveness - as he was stripped of many of his tasks...
The church’s discipline and consequences included keeping him from working with children, not allowing him to be at the church campus alone, and lots of prayer. His removal from mission work also cost him whatever income they were giving him.
So let's not make it seem as though the church did nothing.
As far as handling the marriage - yeah, I agree the church botched that one. It's difficult to say that a church should ever endorse a divorce, but to discipline the wife is just nutty. I can't blame her for leaving as she did.
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The church is really put in a no win situation in cases like this. If they OK a divorce, they will get bad press for being ungodly because God hates divorce. If they desire to keep the marriage together, then they are protecting pedophiles, and disregard the woman.
Just thinking about it, the best thing for the church with regards to the marriage is to remain in an advisory role, suggest that they seek the Lord within themselves before making any decisions, and let them handle it themselves.
The Catholic church is very much against divorce. My family is Catholic and there is a relative who was married to a guy who had some kind of drinking problem and wasn't a very nice person from what I was told. Well, the priest from the church my relative attended was actually the one that finally convince her to divorce her husband. I think it's sick when a church tells people they should be in marriages that are unhealthy and a church who would protect a pedophile. That's just creepy!
It wasn't a total forgiveness - as he was stripped of many of his tasks...
The church’s discipline and consequences included keeping him from working with children, not allowing him to be at the church campus alone, and lots of prayer. His removal from mission work also cost him whatever income they were giving him.
So let's not make it seem as though the church did nothing.
As far as handling the marriage - yeah, I agree the church botched that one. It's difficult to say that a church should ever endorse a divorce, but to discipline the wife is just nutty. I can't blame her for leaving as she did.
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The church is really put in a no win situation in cases like this. If they OK a divorce, they will get bad press for being ungodly because God hates divorce. If they desire to keep the marriage together, then they are protecting pedophiles, and disregard the woman.
Just thinking about it, the best thing for the church with regards to the marriage is to remain in an advisory role, suggest that they seek the Lord within themselves before making any decisions, and let them handle it themselves.
Oh the SHAME! THE SHAME I say...I truly hope he is able to overcome and not have his life ruined..
The Village Church, a megachurch in the Dallas area with 11,000 members, recently denied a woman who wanted to find a new place of worship, the right to leave because she was “under discipline” for violating church rules and biblical law.
The church made the following statement via e-mail to its members:
“There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus and, therefore, no condemnation for Jordan. He has confessed his sin, and through the finished, redemptive work of Christ, Jordan is washed clean of all unrighteousness, met with forgiveness and granted fellowship with the body.”
The church is run by idiots. Too much leviticus is my diagnosis.
The woman wised up and left. They hadn't managed to destroy *all* her brain cells.
Oh the SHAME! THE SHAME I say...I truly hope he is able to overcome and not have his life ruined..
I don't know if you went to the point of reading the actual emails from the church and the woman involved... it's long reading but interesting. The church emailed the entire membership about this. The woman put out her own email, interspersed with her comments.
At one point, she was trying to separate her finances to protect herself. Apparently, whenever there is a marital issue among the "covenant members" where divorce is a possibility, she wrote...
When I asked why the elders felt as though my choices about personal finances were within the scope of their authority, I was informed that "In a marriage separation, every aspect of your marriage is under the authority of the elders of the church".
She called someone about it the next day...
He also went on to tell me that I could not trust myself to think clearly during a situation like this and that my job was to "let the church hold my hand and tell me what to do."
She was indeed seeking outside council about the entire situation. The person replied...
"they are not your spiritual authority, we are. We are the most important voice at the table, and you need to wait until we decide how you should proceed."
I almost fell out of my chair.
I know many of you have said many in leadership want to control others. Honestly, this is the first I have encountered anything like this. No wonder she was running for the tall grass. I know the Lord should be of the first priority - but not to the point of treating people like this.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Murk
Wait... what? They refuse to let the woman leave the church? Since when is a church prison?
If people are brainwashed so much that they don't understand they can just walk about and not go back, it sounds a lot more like a cult than a church.
Divorcing is against God's will, but if a man, find impossible to live with in his partner, then there is a way like legal separation, if the situation is really so bad, that there is no other way to go.
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