No matter how you slice it, a church is, always has been, and always will be a political institution. And let me be sure you understand what I mean by political. The word has to do with the exercise of power in the governance of an entity. Usually, we think of this in terms of the state, but it applies to any community of people who band together.

Now here is the problem that all this creates. The mere forming of a church creates, automatically, power. I suspect that is the intent of building a church—to generate power through the working together of many people, each doing what he does best. You don’t build an entire house with concrete workers. You need a team with different skills.

The saints had a job to do, and the formation of a church seems to have been intended to facilitate that job. The problem, though, is familiar to us all. Power corrupts. The larger the church is, the greater the power and the greater the likelihood of corruption.