what we do on earth echoes in eternity

Matthew 18:18-20

There is a key comparison between what happens on earth and what happens in heaven. Jesus is making it clear that he has given a large amount of authourity to his disciples. The question is, does this apply to the whole church, to just the leaders of the church or to just the apostles? The previous verses would apply to the whole church and there is no indication that Jesus has changed the focus of his words so it would seem that Jesus has given authourity to the Church (and the local expression of it, as seen by verse 20) to act and speak on his behalf.
This is a huge responsibility! I think these verses make a good argument for membership in a local church. I know that anyone who has put their faith in Christ is a member of the Church but most local churches have adopted membership as a mechanism for recognizing those who have truly put their faith in Christ. I know that there is a pragmatic side to this as well since a membership process is necessary to be recognized as a non-profit organization by the government. I also know that membership is not really mentioned in the Bible, at least in terms of how we define it in the local church today. However, I don't think membership processes are necessarily ruled out. These verses provide all the authourity for the church to organize itself as long as that organization does not end up being anti-biblical. Through out history, even in the New Testament, we see the church organizing itself in pragmatic ways to meet the challenges of the times in ways that were not explicitly mentioned previously in Scripture or in the recorded words of Jesus. For example, deacons, elders, councils, etc.
So, since this church has chosen to organize itself around a formalized membership process, the members of this church are the ones with authourity to act and speak on behalf of the local church and therefore members are the ones who are given the authourity that Jesus speaks of in these verses. The members of this local church have delegated some of their authourity to elders and pastors. This means that the members hold the authourity to recognize these gifts in individuals and affirm them in ministry. This means that the members not only act on behalf of the church but they act on behalf of Christ. The decisions they make in regards to the church are affirmed in heaven.