I think the quotes Jonathan found are interesting and helpful.  I will admit that I have found it very tempting to encourage a church to dismiss "to the world."  When a member leaves your church, time and distance tend to strain the relationship, making accountability difficult.  Membership fails to become meaningful and it tempting to argue that it has dissolved in everything but name only.  Nonetheless, I've been convinced that neither time nor distance can simply dissolve membership.

The more I think about it (Greg, you mentioned this the other day and I agree) the more I like the last line of the covenant mentioned in that old church covenant that accompanied the New Hampshire Confession of Faith and that Mark reprinted in his recent book, What is a Healthy Church?  "We we will, when we move from this place, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God's Word."

Whether a church has a church covenant with a line like this or not, I think the spirit of it is important to convey up front when a member joins the church.  The elders/pastors of the church are going to shepherd even when you move away and, because that shepherding becomes next-to-impossible when you have moved away, and because the shepherd is still accountable for your soul, and because the congregation is still in covenant to nurture your faith, the church will discipline you--albeit from afar--if it appears that you are not being diligent in finding an evangelical church to join.

In short, this is discipline for non-attendance.  This, I think, is going to sound strange to a lot of evangelical ears.  It has taken me a while to work through it.  But how do you have meaningful membership without it?