Guarding One Another: Church Discipline

9Marks Healthy Church Study Guides #8

by Bobby Jamieson

While church discipline is never easy, it is sometimes a necessary, albeit painful, part of the Christian life. This helpful study guide tackles the difficult topic in six chapters designed to focus discussion on the interpretation and application of biblical texts. Groups will work through questions as they discover the role of church discipline, seeing and practicing it in a gracious and loving way. A series of ten 6–7 week studies covering the nine distinctives of a healthy church as originally laid out in  Nine Marks of a Healthy Church  by Mark Dever. This series explores the biblical foundations of key aspects of the church, helping Christians to live out those realities as members of a local body. Conveniently packaged and accessibly written, the format of this series is guided, inductive discussion of Scripture passages and is ideal for use in Sunday school, church-wide studies, or small group contexts.

64 pages, Paperback

First published April 3, 2012

About the author

Bobby Jamieson is a Ph.D. student in New Testament and affiliated lecturer in New Testament Greek at the University of Cambridge. He and his wife are members of Eden Baptist Church, and they live in Cambridge with their three children. Bobby previously served as assistant editor for 9Marks.

See also R.B. Jamieson

Reviews

[Josue · Rating 4 out of 5]

The health of the church is of utmost importance, for a non-healthy church displays a distorted image of God's holiness to the world. Yet a healthy church requires discipline, which isn't easy. This short study guide looks at the role of Christians in guarding one another against sin, and thereby cultivating a healthy church that displays God's holiness accurately to the world.

This is a study guide to be used within a class or small-group setting of local churches. I think it is structured well so that the main ideas of each of the six lessons are clear.

It is driven by question and answers, and the last section of this booklet provides suggested answers to the objective questions, which is very helpful.

I think this would be an excellent resource to use as a local church teaches on the topic of "church discipline."

[C.J. Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful book for training others; could've been more heavy on the content side, but I guess that's what the other 9Marks books are for. I think it could be used to train new elders and deacons (and maybe members) by beefing it up with more reading from the other 9Marks books.