“Pick out from among you seven men of good repute …”
When was the last time your local church “read out” or excommunicated someone?
I know some churches that have never done it. Even in churches that have, for most it’s been a very long time, to almost nobody’s regret. In these litigious days, telling a brother or sister they are no longer welcome in the fellowship of the saints is not an action in which anybody is particularly enthusiastic about participating. Nor should it be: there is plenty of financial risk involved, as well as the potential risk to testimony if a person so excluded elects to push back in a public way and the church’s version of the excommunication narrative is called into question by people incapable of understanding its purpose.
Who jumps at handling a hot potato like that? Nobody with a keen sense of self-preservation, that’s for sure.