"The decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church," R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., wrote in a 2001 essay in a book titled "Polity: Biblical Arguments on How to Conduct Church Life," edited by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.

"No longer concerned with maintaining purity of confession or lifestyle, the contemporary church sees itself as a voluntary association of autonomous members, with minimal moral accountability to God, much less to each other,” Mohler observed.

"[W]ithout a recovery of functional church discipline -- firmly established upon the principles revealed in the Bible -- the church will continue its slide into moral dissolution and relativism," Mohler wrote.

Jeff Noblit, pastor of First Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, Ala., agreed with Mohler's call for church discipline and said he has seen it practiced successfully firsthand.

Eighteen years ago when Noblit became pastor of First Baptist, he developed a conviction that church discipline is biblical and builds the purity of the church. Noblit's conviction stemmed from reading the Bible and Baptist writings from past generations, including the New Hampshire Confession, the First and Second London Confessions and the works of Charles Spurgeon.

Responding to Noblit’s leadership, First Baptist began to practice church discipline according to the process outlined in Matthew 18.

The first step in church discipline is for one person to confront a sinning church member privately, Noblit said. If the individual does not repent, the confronting person should take two or three others with him and confront the sinning church member again, the pastor continued.