The purpose of this article is to challenge the way our modern churches are set up and the negative consequences stemming from that hierarchical structure. The typical modern church follows the same template as a corporation with the CEO as the pastor, the Committee as the board of directors and the membership as the customers. The success is measured therefore by the number of members and the size of the building. The message is often watered down in order to please the audience. The musicians put on a professional performance which turns into a form of entertainment for the spectators present. It is sort of a mass marketing campaign to sell cheap tickets to heaven to a feel-good crowd that has nothing to do with God. This is the grand delusion perpetrated by many of our mega churches, a radical departure from the original early church as the apostles set it up. Every time apostle Paul was referring to the elders as leaders of the church, he used the plural, not singular. There is only one instance where we read of a single person in charge (Diotrephes – 1John 3:9) and he is depicted in a negative way as a dictator refusing to welcome the apostles. This brings me to the first negative aspect of having one man in charge, namely the aspect of power. The temptation of power that tickles the ego is immense. Satan tempted Jesus in the same way by offering him to be in charge of the whole world. There are real cases where a pastor started in a humble way only to turn into a dictator over time becoming lured by this irresistible sense of power and control. The second negative aspect is that the pulpit becomes a magnet not for honest people willing to serve, but for the ones with a fleshly desire to be in charge and run the show. This never-ending quest for power leads to friction and church splitting. The congregation misses out on the original mission being devoured by internal infighting. The early church even though they met in different houses, due to space limitations, there was only one church in that town that apostle Paul addressed. By contrast, today we are witnessing multiple churches, some from the same denomination, competing with each other for a limited number of people and money I might add. There is this “us versus them” mentality that takes away the unity in the body of Christ. I always cringe when I hear pastors making appeals like “come to our church” in their desire to fill the pews and become the most popular one in town, as if being in a different congregation is not being part of the universal church. What I am suggesting is to do away with the position of the main pastor and instead have a group of spiritually mature elders leading the church, whose main job is to preach and feed the flock. Let’s move away from the notion of power and the obsession of who is in charge - instead look at each other as a family, just like the early church. Let’s abandon the mindset that a position in the church confers some sort of status and align ourselves with the biblical teaching that we are all servants, each with his own gift, for edifying the body of Christ. Nick – paxelectric@hotmail. com