One of the things I do not appreciate about every church I have ever been involved with is the hierarchical structure of authority.  It is very interesting to me that Dr. Barb Orlowski, in her soon-to-be-published dissertation on spiritual abuse in churches, devotes an entire chapter to the hierarchical structure of authority.  Wait a minute  . . .   so, that would mean . . . spiritual abuse might maybe “possibly” perhaps be connected to the hierarchical church structure?  Here is the link to her dissertation – pay special attention to chapter 3.

Here is an excerpt from her work:

The priesthood of all God’s people, first introduced by Luther, was lost as the church quickly returned to hierarchical structures of leadership.  The challenge we face in restoring the priesthood of all God’s people is:

1. current leaders are accustomed to control;
2. leaders fear disorder if they are not in control;
3. a sense of “professional” leadership has crept into the church, which means pastors often rely on their natural talent, instead of the Spirit and insist on looking and sounding respectable;
4. modern individualism has impacted our thinking causing us to lose the biblical perspective of the Spirit; and finally,
5. we use the wrong dominant model in church.  Most of our churches have the larger body and smaller groups.  The mistake of most churches is to import the larger group into the smaller group rather than allowing the small groups to impact the larger group.  This wrongly directed model eventually kills the small group rather than promoting “every member ministry”.  Leaders must work to make a congregational life full of participation.

from Robert Webber, The Younger Evangelicals (p150-1) as written in the above linked dissertation

Of course, this may not be true of your pastor or priest.   I have friends who are pastors of churches and are not “accustomed to being in control” and do not “fear disorder if they are not in control” but they cannot escape the expectations put on them by the people.  For example, even in an informal gathering outside of the church when the time comes to say grace before the meal, who often gets asked to pray?  The pastor.  (Tell me it’s not true.)  Or, when someone’s grandson is hanging out with the wrong crowd and experimenting with drugs, why do they phone the pastor and ask him/her to pray about it?  Why aren’t their own prayers and the prayers of others in the church community good enough?

The priesthood of all believers is not a reality in most church settings, but it is not always the fault of the leadership.  Sometimes, the people elevate their leaders to that position and sometimes it is simply the structure of the institution itself.

We many not be able to change people’s expectations, but we CAN change the institutional structure, . . . can’t we?

(In case you missed it, take a closer look at the photo above.  The photo was brought to my attention by www.thegodjourney.com)