Quote:
Originally Posted by TLFisher
This was and probably still is a problem in many churches and not just local churches. When you have a brother who prophesies in meetings, he's going to be well thought of even when behaving badly. Those in church leadership don't want to discipline such brothers. It is far more easier to discipline a reserved yet concerned brother. If he's not prophesying in meetings, a reserved brother might have their standing in the church under scrutiny.
An example I used to use a brother can go drinking or get high on Saturday night, come an prophesy on Sunday morning and he's a brother in good standing. Then you could have a spiritual brother who comments we should drop the Holy Word for Morning Revival and just use the Bible. He might be requested to come to the fellowship room for an Inquisition.
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Well this is a hard thing because I feel like the elders and other members really have no business knowing about the personal lives of the saints. However in some cases from Moses Lake some wives of abusive brothers came forward for help to the eldership and were basically ignored. I know of one though at least who was told they supported her if she left her husband. But I don't think they were going to support her financially or anything like that. They just gave her the amen to leave if he was physically abusing her, which he was. But she was too scared to leave
So it's kind of a catch-22 because we don't really belong in other people's business in their personal lives. And I would not want to be in a locality that did exercise control over what people do in their personal lives. But I do understand the scenario that you're painting. You're saying that certain brothers are covered if they are viewed as very active in the church life, while others who seem more reserved might be looked at with more scrutiny. But to me this scenario you're describing is wholly wrong because my personal life and other's personal lives are no ones business but between them and God. Even Paul said he didn't want to know anything amongst the saints, but Christ crucified- 1 Corinthians 2:2