Judicial discipline is concerned with the prevention and correction of offense, an offense being defined as anything in the doctrine or practice of a member of the church which is contrary to the Word of God. The purpose of judicial discipline is to vindicate the honor of Christ, to promote the purity of his church, and to reclaim the offender. Excommunication is resorted to only in cases of offenses aggravated by persistent impenitence. It consists in a solemn declaration by an ecclesiastical judicatory that the offender is no longer considered a member of the body of Christ. By excommunication one is removed from the care and discipline of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Excommunication excludes the unrepentant offender from the church.
Removal is a serious matter not to be taken lightly or thought of merely as some therapeutic step. There is a grave danger to the unrepentant sinner who continues to exhibit contumacy. Now I would like to think that the initiation of judicial process where a member is unrepentant ought to be fairly clear to sessions in cases involving sexual sins, gossip, slander, theft, drunkenness, etc., and that the censure of excommunication would be administered to those who remain unrepentant and hardened in their sin. Some books of church order make provision for these precise cases. When a member, without adequate reason, persistently and over an extended period of time, absents himself from the stated services of the church, his name may be erased from the roll according to the following procedures.