Church Hierarchy, to have or not to have. That is the question?
If you have visited churches other than Roman Catholic, you may have noticed that a lot of churches don’t have anyone higher than the Pastor of the individual church.
Then the question that comes to mind is why don’t they have anyone in the church higher than the immediate Pastor? Is a bishop really needed? If these Protestant churches are able to manage without a bishop, then why would a church want or need a bishop?
In order to form an opinion about this issue, let us first look at the way that the churches that don’t have any hierarchy operate.
The main churches that immediately come to mind are the Methodists, Baptists, and Congregationalists. They do not have any clergy above the immediate Pastor. Why is this? These churches are individual and self- supporting. The have a board of Trustees that will determine who the pastor will be and then they get another Pastor, usually the outgoing minister to perform the Ordination ceremony. The pro on this type of church without a hierarchy is that the church can determine for themselves who the pastor will be and find the candidate that best fits the beliefs of the individual church.
The con to not having a hierarchy is that there is inconsistency in the message that is being preached from church to church as it depends on the Pastor of the individual church. The other con is that the apostolic succession is eventually lost.
In the Catholic, Episcopalian, Anglican, and Lutheran churches they have a hierarchy, the doctrine and tenets of the church is uniform for the bishops are keeping a careful watch on what each and every priest is preaching in each of the churches within the Diocese and Jurisdiction. The other pro to having a hierarchy is that the Apostolic Succession is kept intact. For it is written in the Gospels that Jesus gave the Apostle’s authority to perform all of the acts that Jesus himself had done. He said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you”. The apostles were granted the authority to forgive sins and to preach the good news of the Gospel as Jesus had taught them. As Jesus chose his disciples the apostles chose those that would continue the church after they were gone. That is what Apostolic Succession is all about. Only Bishops in the church are consecrated with Apostolic Succession. For they have the authority to ordain priests and consecrate other bishops as needed. The bishops are the ones to ensure that the flock is being taught the Word of God in the proper manner and in the correct context. Bishops also are entrusted to train the priests under them.
Now that we have explored the pros and cons of having a church hierarchy, I would say that I would prefer to have the hierarchy. For I want consistency in what is being preached along with the Apostolic Succession.
May the Peace of the Lord be with you,
Bishop Roy W. Stevens III, SSFX, DD
