New Survey: 54% of Pastors Have Never Enacted Church Discipline, Including 82% of UMC Pastors
A recent Lifeway Research survey of over 1,000 senior pastors and ministers reveals that formal church discipline is uncommon in many congregations. The study found that a majority of pastors have never formally disciplined a congregant, and only one in six churches has done so within the past year.
According to the survey, 54% of pastors agreed with the statement, “A member has not been formally disciplined since I came as pastor nor prior, as far as I know.” Additionally, 14% of respondents reported that their churches lack any official policies on church discipline.
Female pastors and those from mainline denominations are the least likely to engage in formal discipline. For instance, 70% of mainline pastors reported no instances of discipline during their leadership tenure, which is no surprise. Mainline churches typically have less categories of sin than evangelical churches do, so that a typical progressive Episcopalian church would not consider a man living with his girlfriend while doing hard drugs on the weekend something worthy of discipline, where a conservative church would.
Women pastors were more likely than their male counterparts to select the option indicating no formal discipline (68% vs. 51%). Similarly, Methodist pastors were the most likely to report no formal discipline (82%) and the highest to note the absence of official disciplinary policies (36%)
The survey also found that female pastors are more likely than male pastors to report having no disciplinary policies in place (21% vs. 13%). Mainline pastors similarly outpaced evangelical pastors in this regard (21% vs. 12%).
Lifeway notes: that “larger churches are among the least likely to have avoided practicing church discipline. Around a third (35%) of pastors at churches with at least 250 in worship attendance say no one has been formally disciplined, fewer than any other church size.”
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That is why church is nothing more than just another social club now – it is no longer worship in so many churches. As long as the offering plate is filled each week, no need to rock the boat.
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