Is Church Discipline Really Necessary?

“Do the right thing regardless of whether it works out or not. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Doing the right thing doesn’t mean that it’s going to work out.” — Kent Hughes on church discipline

Recorded in 2012, this conversation with TGC Council members Thabiti Anyabwile, Kent Hughes, and Philip Ryken covers why church discipline is necessary, what should drive it, and how church discipline brings gospel clarity to those both inside and outside the church. Ideally, corrective discipline will lead to the joy of seeing a member restored; but even if it doesn’t, it leads to a healthy soberness in a congregation that has practiced true love with difficult consequences.

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Thabiti Anyabwile (MS, North Carolina State University) is a pastor at Anacostia River Church in southeast Washington, DC. He’s the author of several books, including What Is a Healthy Church Member?, Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons, Reviving the Black Church, and others. He and his wife, Kristie, have three children.

R. Kent Hughes (DMin, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, pastor emeritus of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, and a Council member for The Gospel Coalition. He has authored numerous books, including Disciplines of a Godly Man. He and his wife, Barbara, have four children.

Philip G. Ryken (MDiv, Westminster Theological Seminary; DPhil, University of Oxford) is president of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and a Board member of The Gospel Coalition. He has authored more than 50 books, including Loving the Way Jesus Loves. He and his wife, Lisa, have five children and two grandchildren.