Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Dangers of Hierarchy

A hierarchical structure is dangerous, because it concentrates power in the hands of a few people at the top. In a biblical Church the decision making process will be decentralised. No one person will hold much power, so if a leader falls into sin, damage will be limited.

A problem with hierarchical structures is that they allow churches to continue after the Holy Spirit has departed. A dead church can continue for many years, because it is perpetuated by the institution. On the other hand, an autonomous House Church that grieves the Holy Spirit will quickly die, because it does not have institutional support. If it was dependent on the Holy Spirit, it will collapse without Him, limiting the amount of damage done.

A serious sin of the western church has been transplanting its divisions and denominations into Africa, Asia and Latin America, where they do not mean anything. The concept of an Anglican Church (Church of England) in Africa should be seen as bizarre, but this kind of thing is so common, it has become acceptable.

2 comments:

Jeroen said...

Interesting posts lately, Ron!
I am looking forward for posts on the subject of healing too ;)

Anonymous said...

"A problem with hierarchical structures is that they allow churches to continue after the Holy Spirit has departed". This is grievously true. Satan now has pulpits to preach from via the liberal mainstream denominations here in the U.S.
I wonder if the drive to institutionalize the churches is because man thinks he can reduce the Great Commission down to a mere logistics problem, like he does with so many other things? If true, then it is rooted in pride.