Maybe you need to read your Bible, hierarchy is in there. And maybe you also need to read some church history. Heresy comes and goes but the Church survives.
Oh and I am also in the South, and I DO READ THE BIBLE DAILY and often wonder about those Baptist Churches on every cvorner. 1st Baptist, 2nd Baptist west side Baptist, they split over something. Tidy your own house before you look into others.
Not necessarily true at all...Independent Baptist churches don't focus much on 'church'...They have their eyes on Jesus and it might surprise you how much they agree with each other while not having a hierarchy to rule over them...Except for the word of God, that is...