The minister and the priest teach that the organization is greater. No great philosophy has ever come from an organization, but from an individual whose research has been a personal study of God and ITS ways.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Differences exist in practice and organization between the Lord's Church and man-made institutions.
What's true for churches is true for other institutions: the older and more organized they get, the less adaptable they become. That's why the most resilient things in our world - biological life, stock markets, the Internet - are loosely organized.
There is a kind of thinking in the Church that wants to reduce the priest to a mere functionary, a managing director, where administration rather than doctrine and worship are to determine the form of the Church.
In my opinion, most organized religion does neither agentic service nor relational nurturance very well.
Ministers of God's choosing are engaged in a great work. They are warring not merely against men, but Satan and his angels.
Times have changed since George Herbert... but the principle and spirit in which he ministered as a priest remains an inspiration and model for all priests.
Any great organization can go through sectarian phases.
Ministers should impress upon the people the necessity of individual effort. No church can flourish unless its members are workers. The people must lift where the ministers lift.
The best theology is rather a divine life than a divine knowledge.
All Church power is, therefore, properly ministerial and administrative. Everything is to be done in the name of Christ, and in accordance with his directions.