Now, now, for some reason you refuse to see a reasonable middle-ground. :) The Bible lays out positions of church authority and I am fine with that. However, all of them are still subject first to the scriptures. They are also subject to the will of God's people on interpretation, i.e. they are accountable. Obviously this is not so in Roman Catholicism, since the hierarchy proclaims and determines, on threat of excommunication, what the interpretation is and means.
Unlike other faiths, I do not "subject" myself to my pastor. Sometimes I do disagree with my own pastor on what he preaches, since I am a staunch Reformer. Most of his preaching is in line with my view of classic Reformed theology, and the few times it is not, it just isn't that big a deal. I also disagree with other good Reformers on minor matters. Again, no big deal. We are all learning and being sanctified.
If for some reason our pastor started preaching outside the faith, then we, as an autonomous laity, would have the right to remove him according to our church by-laws. Fortunately, this has never been an issue in our church. Our pastor understands that he is there to serve Christ, not the Southern Baptist Convention, in leading us in worship of Him.
One core of our pastor's preaching is a direct one-on-one personal relationship with Christ. Almost every Sunday he says that Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. I think that's beautiful.
I've heard RC Sproul say many times that due to sin, the best that any theologian(which ALL Christians should be) can hope for is to be 80% correct, and even that is a stretch. However, there are the essentials which must be correct for one's eternity depends on it.
To your interpretation of the scriptures. Therefore, you are still the authority. And in that case, it is just lip service to church authority.
-A8