Ebook
Walking Together: A Congregational Reflection on Biblical Church Discipline is a study of the biblical concept of church discipline. It seeks to show that church discipline, rightly understood, is a ministry of mercy and grace that will bless churches that return to it. Walking Together reveals that church discipline was a ministry that was very important to earlier believers, and that the modern church has abandoned it to her own detriment. It is a clarion call for individuals and churches to come back to this vital but long-neglected aspect of congregational and personal life. By doing so, churches can be healed and interpersonal relationships can be restored.
"Wyman Richardson has called us to examine the Bible-based
standard of congregational ethics. Why? Because we live in a very
permissive day, and what often gets deemed as God's requirement
winds up as little more than a mild hint that asks no real
requirements of our members. It is as if we say, 'Sin if you must,
we'll try our best to look the other way.' Richardson believes that
the New Testament contains a call to congregational holiness. It is
to this ancient, higher calling that his book is committed. If its
words seem over stern to you, read it yet again. Read it until you
come to believe in this great, evident truth: God does care how his
children behave, for their behavior lies at the heart of His hope
of bringing the world unto himself."
Calvin Miller, author of 'Preaching' and 'Oh Shepherd Where Art
Thou?'
"Wyman Richardson has written a concise, thorough and altogether
biblical guidebook for congregations who want to take seriously the
Scriptural pattern for local church discipline. This is not a book
of theory, but a practical manual tested on the anvil of pastoral
and congregational experience. I commend this important study to
God's people everywhere."
Timothy George, Dean of the Beeson Divinity School of Samford
University and an Executive Editor of 'Christianity Today'
"Walking Together: A Congregational Reflection on Biblical Church
Discipline is a superb analysis of a missing jewel in the church of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The book is a beautiful blend of the
biblical, theological, historical and practical. It is excellently
written, and any minister or church will be well served by this
work in recapturing this vital and missing element in the life of
the church."
Daniel L. Akin, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological
Seminary
Wyman Richardson is the pastor of Central Baptist Church in
North Little Rock, Arkansas. He is the author of Walking
Together: A Congregational Reflection on Biblical Church
Discipline (Wipf & Stock) and On Earth As It Is In
Heaven: Reclaiming Regenerate Church Membership (Founders
Press). He is the editor of the eight volume The Collected
Writings of James Leo Garrett Jr., 1950-2015 (Resource). He has
published articles in Leadership, the Southwestern Journal of
Theology, the 9Marks Journal, Founders Journal, and The Chesterton
Review. He and his wife, Roni Richardson, have one daughter,
Hannah.