Good for them. Trust Scripture. The earliest churches didn't have a hierarchy either.
ah, you need to read your patristics. try the letter of Clement of Rome. There was a hierarchy from the first generations. PCUSA’s problem is not top down leadership, it is leadership that abandons the teachings of Christ. Would a grassroots led church with the same heresies be any better? No Way. BTW, grassroots heresy is exactly what is happening in TEC and has plagued the Catholic Church. The ineffectiveness of Anglican hierarchy is why they are where they are. An effective, authoritative hierarchy is why the Catholic Church is well on its way to recovery and has been since 1978.
Well they did. Elders and deacons etc.
But I understand. Regardless, that isn’t the reason they’re falling apart. They’re falling apart because they refuse to love the truth. That hasn’t changed. They think it’s all about how you ‘do’ church rather than what the church teaches about sin and salvation.