I'm glad you are observant and have the church at heart and think of its progress and growth.

Your question actually is not in bad taste because it's the duty of every member of the church to be interested in the growth of the church and in the things of the LORD since one day, the LORD will require from everyone of us, our stewardship.

On a couple of occasions, I have spoken to Officers concerning this very issue of making sure that their wives are always in church, especially, on Wednesday praying meetings, so that when they are encouraging others not to forsake fellowship, it will be leadership by example.

I'll continue to encourage every member of MSCC to always be in church because this is what the LORD expects of us.

Let's not be negatively influenced by the conducts of others. Let's always focus on the WORD and be influenced only by the WORD.

I have also observed that most members are too individualistic and do not have a warm welcoming spirit for visitors who come among us. I have addressed this a couple of times behind the pulpit. Let's get close among people who visit.

The rapture is very near and we can't afford to be disobedient to the WORD, or be lackadaisical about the things of God.

You are always welcome to let me know your concerns in the church. Pray for the ministry, pray for Officers, pray for the church.

Concerning John 20:23 and the question that was asked, I'll say that the Lord Jesus was talking about believers and not any other person. So therefore, He expects us to forgive our offenders, who are also believers, when they repent of their offences. In the likely event of the offender not repenting of his offence, what you will hold against him, will be upheld by the LORD. Heaven will recognise that. I, however, don't believe that if a person repents of his offences and asks for forgiveness, and the offended believer still does not forgive him, the LORD too will not forgive him. That Scripture is not saying that.

If you juxtapose John 20:23 with Mathew 6:14-15, John 20:23 will become clearer to you. We are supposed to forgive. So if we refuse to forgive, though our offenders have repented and have asked for forgiveness, the LORD will not hold that offence against our offenders.

Mathew 6:14-15
"For if ye forgive men their tresspasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

On the issue of excommunicating a church member from the church, Brother Branham had this to say in a Message QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS JEFF. IN COD 61-0112

"I don't believe that any deacon board has a right to throw anybody out of church, or any trustee board, or any pastor has a right to do it. I think if anybody was to be disfellowshipped, would be because of immoral living, or something like that, that he wasn't a fit person, like a man coming in here defiling our girls or -- or insulting our women, and things like that, and still professing to be one of us here...See? Now, if he's out somewhere else coming in, why, we have to do something about it, but, when it comes to a person like that a immoral person trying to make love to our wives, or-- or insulting our daughters, or, you know, something another like that, or do something immorally around her, or taking our little boys out and making perverts out of them, or something, those things should taken up, and then that fellow should be excommunicated from the fellowship and not permitted to take communion with it; because we're not supposed to do that. We're not."

There's no particular procedure to excommunicate a member. If he's found to be living in sin as God's prophet has described it, he should quickly be excommunicated before his evil ways affects the church. Sometimes, it may seem that a pastor is slow in taking these steps as given by the prophet. The only reason a pastor could be seen to be slowing in applying the principles as espoused, is that, he could be waiting to have the proven evidence so that he doesn't err on the side of the Message.

When a person falls into the trap of sin and repents quickly, his situation is different from what the prophet has described.

However, there's a procedure in declaring a backslidden brother or sister as a pagan/heathen in the church, as the Lord Jesus gave it in Mathew 18:15-17.

"Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican."

AMEN...Hope you are doing well. Confessing the wrong one commits takes on different forms:

* Where one wrongs the LORD, he must Confess genuinely to the LORD and repents from his wrong.

* If we wrong our fellow man, we must confess to him out of a repentant heart.

*If we wrong both the LORD and our fellow man, we must confess to the LORD and the person we have wronged.

Unconfessed sin is a sin that has been committed, and the one who committed it has not genuinely repented from it. If he has genuinely and thoroughly repented from it and has therefore confessed it before the LORD, it's no more an unconfessed sin. It's then put in God's sea of forgetfulness.

It's completely wrong for a married man (or unmarried man) to flirt with a lady he's not married to. IT IS A GREAT SIN BEFORE GOD! The Bible says those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. Unless there's a genuine and thorough repentance, they are hell-bound.

Another fearful thing is that that person can spurn the grace God has given him, without knowing grace is over for him. When that happens, his repentance will mean nothing as it happened to Essau.

Brother Branham said in a Message ADOPTION 1, 1960 , para 54
"And there's where the church is failing today: on that walk. Do you know that even your own misbehavior can knock somebody else out of getting healed? Your misbehavior of unconfessed sins of you believers, can cause this church to bitterly fail. And at the day of the judgement you'll be responsible for every bit of it."

It's good you are defending the faith to the outside world that we don't stand for that. As much as you're trying to convince such people of what we stand for, invite them to church. They need to hear what you hear.