One of the dilemmas that believers face inside the institutionalized Church is that they are often not taught how to hear from God and how to be active in their faith. When they are taught these fundamental spiritual basics, they are often limited in their expression of this dynamic.
Another dilemma is that members easily expect the church leadership to think for them, removing their own individual responsibility in their spiritual growth. Just as detrimental is when church authority lords it over its members by not allowing them to think for themselves.
We do need leadership in the form of elders who teach, preach, and pastor in each church and who come alongside, not hierarchical church leadership. The simple/organic Church movement embraces the Bible scriptures that teach that all believers are “priests” and does away with the top-down structure of the pope/pastor church.
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood… that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9 ESV).
Incidentally, the idea that only the husband or father is the priest in the home is an Old Testament concept that undermines and inhibits the truth of the New Testament. All believers in a family are priests. Imagine the potential of that!
By Tina and Rob Morley
Real Church Life 