We have seen in the Rule that there comes a time when it is best for everyone to excommunicate a person from fellowship. This is still a “hard saying” for a permissive culture like ours to accept.
But when we face the facts, we know it’s still true that “one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel.” We know that healthy life together cannot indefinitely exist when it is being undermined by resistance. We’ve witnessed the damage done by dysfunctional people who eventually contaminate the environment.
We have also seen that the process of excommunication is not a knee-jerk decision made in the heat of a disruptive moment. Rather, it is a very-carefully planned and executed experience. It is an expectation based in an offering of grace, repeated efforts to secure repentance, and much prayer. It is the final step of an extended process.
But even with all that said, there is one more message in the Rule in Chapter 29. The resistant member can be received back up to three times. The final word in community is not “excommunication” it is “readmission.”
When the community watches one of its own walk away, they say what Tom Bodett has become famous for saying, “We’ll leave the light on for you.”
Oboedire 