Sigh,
I think topics got conflated somehow back upthread.
You had expressed concern that the big-tent inclinations of the UMs (despite the very conservative foundational docs of the United Methodists) were for some congregations so big that the inclinations conflicted with “discipling”. (Actually, the UM bishop assembly has regularly defrocked clergy who insisted on operating outside doctrinal boundaries, but whatever.) I took this to mean doctrinal discipling, but Sherman seems to have thought you were talking about “disciplining”. The two topics are related, of course, but as you yourself mentioned afterward “Whether congregations discipline like Jesus is a different matter than whether we teach what God has revealed.”
Sherman agreed that there was a distinction between them; acknowledged that they were also necessarily related; affirmed that accurately representing God as best we can is something we want (and ought) to do as faithful Christians, and that we need to teach what God has revealed; affirmed that teaching repentance and a call for a change of heart, mind and lifestyles is part of our evangelical duty–all of which fits with affirming the importance of “discipling” and of not watering down the doctrinal an penitent importance of “discipling”–and then went on to connect this with “disciplining” by concluding (on the basis of some standard theological doctrines) that any disciplining ought to be done in better ways than what he had experienced and was complaining about. (A complaint you seemed to agree was valid but distinct from the larger process of discipling.)
Amy agreed with Sherman about erring on the side of mercy when it comes to the church discipline process that Sherman was complaining about never being done correctly in his experience (not when it comes to larger questions of making disciples).
Your reply to her agreement about this was “But you guys, WHY ERR?”
Frankly, I wasn’t sure which topic you were asking about (since you had seemed to agree that an unmerciful church discipline process was wrong but distinct from doctrinal and penitence evangelism which you were concerned the United Methodist congregations weren’t strong enough on. Assuming you had the UMs specifically in mind, which is who Sherman and the others were talking about, and not Methodists in general or another Methodist body.) Were you emphatically asking “why err” on the side of mercy in the church discipline process?–which is what they were talking about. Or “why err” on the side of mercy in promoting and teach church doctrines and penitential evangelism?–which they had already agreed shouldn’t be done. (Thus Sherman’s guess that you were trying to be tongue-in-cheek humorous.)
Consequently I tried to phrase my reply so that it could apply either way. Which, although I thought I was being usefully multi-purpose, maybe didn’t help matters after all.