At present we have a family member who is an adherent to one of the oldest varieties of the body of believers in the Christ. I use this description because all of the varieties call themselves "a Christian church" yet few exist in a form that the founder would agree with (IMHO).
The church structures have evolved and been shaped by three driving factors ....
Firstly a genuine desire to serve the Christ.
Second ... a need to set up a church "structure" that the followers can recognize and be comfortable with ... driven by the socio-historical needs of the followers themselves. In other words, regardless of what Jesus wanted and said, the structure needed to be something that satisfied the emotional needs of the people .... or they would not follow!
Third .... the corrupting influence of the human need to accumulate "power".
Jesus did not want or envisage a church with a formal power structure .... he talked of a one to one direct relationship between himself and any person who believed. His actions showed that he rejected the formal church structure that existed at the time.
Yet humans have taken his concepts of the relationship that is possible with him .... and fitted them into a structure that is essentially the same as the structure he rejected! Each of the formal church bodies has a structure that gives individuals an ability to gather power .... authority over other believers. .... and the chance to abuse that authority! And they have done so! And they still do so!
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