Church Discipline

Church discipline comes in two types: formative and corrective. Formative discipline, or discipleship, seeks to help form the character and life of the believer. In this sense, every church disciplines it members. Jonathan Leeman has noted that "every church disciplines its members formally . That is, every church, even the unhealthy ones, teaches its members something." Discipline and discipleship come from the same root word, thus discipline is discipleship and discipleship is discipline. Either we are formally or correctively discipling, or disciplining, our members.

Corrective church discipline is a response of an ecclesiastical body to some perceived wrong, whether in action or in doctrine. Its most extreme form in modern churches is excommunication where the offender is banished from the church community until such time as he or she repents or recants.