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Here are the 'right questions'- The more I studied, the more perplexed I became. At one stage my elder sister, a very committed evangelical with somewhat flexible denominational affiliations, chided me with becoming "obsessed" with trying to find a "true Church." "Does it really matter?" she would ask. Well, yes it did. It was all very well for a lay Protestant to relegate the denominational issue to a fairly low priority amongst religious questions: lay people can go to one Protestant Church one week and another the next week and nobody really worries too much. But an ordained minister obviously cannot do that. He must make a very serious commitment to a definite Church community, and under normal circumstances that commitment will be expected to last a lifetime. So clearly that choice had to be made with a deep sense of responsibility; and the time to make it was before, not after, ordination.

Okay, these are a good start. But the obvious answer is so much simpler than he makes it. The true church is the corporate body of individual believers. Jesus said something very simple- 'wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in their midst.' It's amazing how complicated we've made that by coming up with a priesthood, 'full-time ministers', offices, ministries, etc etc ad nauseum.

Here's my contention- if we gather together to edify the Body of Christ (one another), leadership will arise naturally from the relationships that emerge. Gifts and talents will be made manifest, and a degree of weight will be attributed to the words of those who deserve it.

In my opinion, Luther stopped way too soon. He simply replaced one corrupt hierarchy with another- and it persists to this day.

As for me and my family, we meet in homes with other believers. We have the Lord's Supper (a meal), we worship, we pray together, we teach or encourage or just talk with one another about life and the victories and challenges that we encounter.

And this type of ecclesia produces spiritual independence- we rely on Jesus Himself rather than some man or institution who presumes to insert himself between the Bridegroom and His bride.

If this arrangemet sounds 'risky', as if we're going to go off the deep end (a common argument), ask yourself this-- do you really trust the Holy Spirit to keep those that He has sealed? Or does He need man's help?