Contumacy: The Reason For Most Excommunications

About this episode

This episode explores the concept of contumacy as the primary reason for excommunication in churches, discussing its implications and related questions about church authority.

In this episode of The Conquering Truth, we explore "contumacy"—the most common reason for excommunication in faithful churches today. While many assume church discipline is only for overt scandals like adultery, contumacy is a stubborn refusal to submit to the biblically established authority of the church. We discuss why this sin is comparable to the judicial concept of "contempt of court" within the body of Christ and how it manifests as a breach of the membership covenant and ask the following questions: Is it possible to simply "resign" from a local church to avoid the judgment of the elders? Or does this reveal a lack of respect for the universal church and the commands of Matthew 18? And if someone does flee to avoid discipline, is it wrong to excommunicate them for their refusal to recognize the authority of the church? Furthermore, if someone has been excommunicated from a church, is there any way that this can be appealed to other churches, or does scripture require a governing authority for this to happen? Many people first heard of contumacy because of the 2026 controversy involving Stephen Nichols and St. Andrew’s Chapel, and while we…

People in this episode

Host: The Conquering Truth

Topics covered

• contumacy
• excommunication
• church authority
• membership covenant
• church discipline

Keywords

• contumacy
• excommunication
• church discipline
• membership covenant
• Matthew 18

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: St. Andrew’s Chapel

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