Great new book by Mark Dever. Newly released, this book contains all the material that Dever taught us during the January class on the Church. If I had known this, I wouldn't have taken notes!
"In these passages [Matt. 18:15-20; 1 Cor. 5; 2 Cor. 2:6] on discipline, the meaning of membership is seen. Discipline draws a circle around the membership of trhe church. Careful practices of membership and discipline are means to mark off the church from the world and thereby define and display the gospel.
Churches which practice no formal membership and discipline at least make it more difficult for the believers who are part of it to follow Christ and more difficult for those elders to know for whom they are to give account (Heb. 13:17). In fact, I would go a step further and say that churches which practice no self-conscious membership are in sin, since Christians cannot follow basic biblical commands without it. According to the New Testament, church leaders need to know who is and is not a member of the congregation. And perhaps even more important, Christians need to know this--for their own souls' sake!"
--Mark Dever, The Church: The Gospel Made Visible
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