only has the authority to “judge” those who have consciously committed themselves to the church’s authority. A second biblical support for church membership is the wide range of metaphors in the New Testament that portray believers as bound together, knit together, stuck together into the shape of a local church. We are members of God’s household (1 Tim. 3:15). We are stones in God’s temple (Eph. 2:21–22). We are members of Christ’s body (1 Cor. 12:12–26). In each case, whatever those images may