# 12 Challenges Churches Face ![rw-book-cover](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JRL4Qxd5L._SL200_.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[Mark Dever]] - Full Title: 12 Challenges Churches Face - Category: #books ## Highlights - At Capitol Hill Baptist Church, we exercise church disciple in some thought-out and well-defined areas. First, we excommunicate members for non­attendance. If someone attends regularly with no known, unrepentant sin, we consider them to be members in good standing. However, if we are aware of a member who is tolerating a particular sin in his (or her) life, we first work individually with the unrepentant one; then, if the member refuses to repent (see Matthew 18), we excommunicate him, praying all the while for his repentance. ([Location 765](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001A16X4K&location=765)) - According to Paul, how ought we to treat those whom we have excommunicated? A lot of particulars will shape the answer in each case, but in general we are to do what Paul said: "You must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral. . . . With such a man do not even eat" (v. 11). Certainly that precludes spending casual time with the excommunicated one. Basically, we are not to act in any way that will cause him or her to think little of the church's action. We are not called to shun the person absolutely; for example, the one being disciplined is always welcome to come and attend the public worship of God, to hear his Word preached, and to be challenged and convicted by those means God has provided for his or her repentance. ([Location 776](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001A16X4K&location=776)) - As John Newton stated one day in family prayers, "I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. Yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was. By the grace of God I am what I am." Paul ([Location 830](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001A16X4K&location=830))