[freebilly]

It should be pretty clear from Acts and the letters to Timothy that the Church had a defined institutional structure very early on, with centralized finances, counsels, defined roles within the Church for different Christians, etc. Matthew 18:20--

20"For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."

[wideawake]

For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst

When Christians gather Christ is in their midst, of course.

This does not mean that when 10,000 Christians gather they are an amorphous mass - are you denying that Paul clearly gave Timothy instructions on how to run a Christian church and how to vet pastors?

Or that Paul described the Church as a body with various members with different tasks and responsibilities?

Are you denying that Christians in the NT period exercised discipline over their members, held councils, gave decrees, etc.?

Are you basically saying that witness of the Apostles and the NT is useless?

[Quix]

AMEN! BROTHER! PREACH IT!

THEYUNS CUN HAVE CHURCH!!!! SHOUT TUH GLORY!

PRAISE GOD! 2 OR 3

and not a one of them has to be draped about in embroidered-with-gold-thread-finery and other pontifications so consistently loved by INSTITUTIONS.