LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Evangelical author and theologian Albert Mohler says the decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church, according to CBN News.

"If we tolerate sin within our own body," Mohler said, "within our own congregations, then what right do we have to talk to the world about sin that is there?"

Mohler said the church has become far too consumer-oriented, afraid of offending anyone. And he said it has allowed the American secular ideal of private space to become far too influential in the church: "You know, the Bible doesn't give us a whole list of rights of privacy. As a matter of fact, the Bible is very intrusive. And the early church lived together, accountable to each other, for the way they maintained their marriages and the way they raised their children."

The latest research indicates that it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between Christians and the rest of the world. For example, the divorce rate among Christians is just as high as it is among non-Christians. The same can be said for abortion.

Some leading evangelicals say the church could be doing much more to reverse that trend. They say the body of Christ has all but ignored its biblical mandate to discipline members for sinful behavior.

For many it seems like a harsh, outdated approach to have the church elders confront people in their sinful behavior. It conjures up visions of the Salem Witch Trials. But, along with the faithful preaching of the word and proper administration of the sacraments, the Protestant reformers considered the right exercise of church discipline one of the marks of the church.

Pastor Bill Harrell said he laid out the sins one woman in his congregation had admitted committing, and in front of the church members, admonished her. He concluded by saying, "We, the church (elders), in the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, do now declare you suspended from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, until you give satisfactory evidence of repentance."

Harrell said, "Which, again sounds like we're being harsh. But we're told in the Bible, if you eat and drink of the supper in an unworthy manner, you eat and drink judgement to yourself." And Harrell says all of this is never done with an iron fist. "It's not a "holier than thou" sort of thing. It's not an imperious, high-handed sort of thing. It is a humble, loving appeal to a brother or sister to come to themselves, and come back to the Lord and back to the Lord's church," said Harrell.

Church members never gave up praying that the woman, Melodi Ausderau, would renew her commitment to God. After three and a half years, their prayers were answered. She returned to her family, repented to them, and to God.

Today, seven years later, Ausderau is the happily married mother of two children, and she credits the elders of her church with her very survival.

"I am very thankful, yes, that these men were strong enough [to] look past everything that I was to them on a worldly level, and see who I should be spiritually," Ausderau said.

Harrell, the woman's pastor and one of her church elders is also her father.

Harrell said, "There's an old puritan, it may have been Matthew Henry, who said, 'the bandage is always larger than the wound.' And the Lord bandaged us well, and covered with us with blessing beyond what we could have thought or imagined."

This story had a happy ending. But what about those cases in which the church member is unrepentant, and ultimately excommunicated from the church? Harrell, Mohler and others say church discipline still works. And it is necessary because the peace and purity of the church is maintained.