[From the comments on the story of the woman whose church is threatening to go public with her sins.]

As a Sothern Baptist pastor, I want to say that a common misconception is... I think represented from the comment above... is that if you are unrepentant and about to be disciplined by your church that you can just leave tell the leadership that you are withdrawing your membership. There is nothing in the Scripture that supports such a notion. In fact, while I would acknowledge that a person can leave any church for any reason; this does not nullify the churches responsibility to go forward with their actions. One of the purposes of church discipline is to SHAME the person who is in sin.