Some time ago Rev. Tymen Hofman wrote an article in The Banner about our current practice of “lapsing” members of our congregations who for one reason or another no longer attend services but who claim to be committed to Christ and claim to be attending church elsewhere. Though he recognized that misuse could be made of this practice, in general he thought it was a good thing.

I do not share his view. Yearbook statistics have shown that the practice of lapsing has been (mis) used in many instances to “clean the slate.” The year after synod introduced this practice the number of lapsed members was exorbitant. And I know that the practice continues to be used by some consistories to avoid the difficult but yet healthful exercise of discipline for wayward members. It may be an easy way out for consistories. but it is harmful to the members who should be receiving the painful but beneficial treatment of church discipline. What the author of Hebrews 12 says about discipline remains true: “For the moment it does not seem pleasant, but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who has been exercised thereby.” It is sad that too many elders wish to avoid this unpleasant but necessary task. And synod has given them a way out by the practice of lapsing.

The synod did indeed make certain restrictions and guidelines, but more often than not. they are ignored. Hofman’s general endorsement of the practice will only soothe the consciences of consistories who are not doing their duty. I Corinthians 5 makes it very clear that discipline is to be applied in the official gathering of the congregation—see especially verses 3 and 4. There the power of the Lord Jesus is present, and he binds in heaven what is bound on earth . We should never rob wayward members of such beneficial treatment. A church without discipline is a church without love, and such a church cannot expect the blessing of the Lord. The Rev. A.M. Lindeboom, retired minister in the Gerefmeerde Kerken in the Netherlands, has pointed out in more than one of his books how the idea of a “volkskerk” seriously damaged the Scriptural view of the church in the Hervormde Kerk (the former Netherlands state church). and contributed to the almost complete lack of discipline in that church. Children whose parents had never made profession of their faith were baptized and later even children of unbaptized parents were considered members in good standing. The result, says Lindeboom, is that of a total membership of three and a half million, only five hundred thousand are active members. The situation is beginning to repeat itself in the Gerefmeerde Kerken today, according to Lindeboom.

We should take warning from this. Discipline is one of the three marks of the true church, and often the one that disappears first.

Hofman also felt that the practice of lapsing was beneficial for our relations with other church communions. It makes for better feelings between us and other churches around us. That is a weak argument and shows a lack of Reformed “kerk–besef” (church-consciousness), something we desperately need to rekindle in the CRC. We have too much of a watered-down, lowest common denominator mentality among our members, to whom it doesn’t make much difference to what church communion you belong. But that’s a far cry from what we confess in Articles 27–29 of the Belgic Confession. If, as The Banner editor said, these articles don’t function anymore in our churches, then we better make them function again. And the Banner could and should lead in that direction.

J. Tuininga. Lethbridge. Alta