This post originally appeared on the Your Church blog, a resource of our sister publication Your Church.

The March/April issue of Catalyst Leadership focuses on the topic of "Crisis," and features an interview with Ken Sande, president of Peacemaker Ministries. Ken also serves on the Ask the Experts panel for BuildingChurchLeaders.com. The interviewer asks Ken whether churches should be concerned with any legal dangers when it comes to matters of church membership and church discipline:

"We hear from pastors all the time who are considering disciplining a member for egregious behavior, but before anything can be done they get a phone call from an attorney threatening a lawsuit if the church says anything publicly about the member's behavior. The average pastor tends to back off, and that is the end of that.

The church may have avoided a lawsuit, but they will have done nothing to restore the brother or sister in sin or to protect the church from further problems."

The interviewer then asks: