Christian Meat Grinders

Greetings fellow travelers, After 24 years, four churches and four pastors, I have come to the following conclusions. Christians love entertainment and as such love charismatic pastors, and I believe the system man has created that we call church is designed to enslave people. Both of these concepts are interconnected. Churches by their nature, that is from their inception around the 4th century, are pastor and alter centered. In order to be pastor centered a quantity of authority has been granted to the pastor from minimal to complete authority. Most churches exercise complete authority to one degree or another. Often it is a false premise, designed to make the congregant feel as if they have control. Entertainment has been limited in the past to circus like environments with the charismatic pastor the ring master. The problem with a Charismatic Pastor is, that narcissism is an integral part of the personality. One cannot exist without the other. I dare say, to be a pastor and to get up in front of people at least 52 times a year requires a minimal quality of narcissism to begin with and only increases with a charismatic personality. The second problem is the top down, authoritarian hierarchal system that man created, starting in the 4th century. Once this began, money was needed. Money for payrolls, for buying buildings, for maintaining the building and for paying for various other positions. In many cases, elevating a spiritual leader to an administrative roll as well. People became enslaved to the system. Where scripture was the authority over believers, men became the authority. If you did not agree with them you were classified a heretic and punished. Today, this is still in effect. In fact, one is usually labeled as a non believer. You must follow the rules of the church even when it seems to go against what is written in the bible. Protestants love to ridicule the Catholic church, even condemn them. Yet what they do not realize is, each subsequent denomination, and yes, even non-denominational churches have become mini Catholic churches, each with their Pope. When combined together, Pastor centered, with top down authoritarian model, we are left with a Christian meat grinder. By its very nature, this system is designed to chew up people and spit out the remains. What I am talking about are all the crushed, ripped apart believers who are forced to church shop after being put through the grinder. That is, those who have the strength and faith to go to another church. We are yoked with the burden of man made rules and ideas, and subjected to Pastors who admit no wrong doing, never apologize for the wounds they inflect, do not clean out the sin within the camp and almost never step down and repent when their house is in disorder. As noted, I and my wife have now left a fourth church. Pastored by one of the most Godly man I have ever met. Sadly, he has entrenched himself, surrounded himself with loyalists in what seems a paranoiac state of protection. In his later years, he is taking to lies of omission to manipulate what is fast becoming a failed church. As it spirals down, his ears seem to close more, his paranoid state seems to increase. Sadly, all we and others want to do is help this man finish the race well. I believe because of the way the system is created, such stories will continue. More and more people will be crushed. I have asked the following questions many times. Most Christians refuse to answer it. If Christians are so great and good, and are doing what they are supposed to be doing, why then did God find it necessary to give John the Revelation that we find as the last book of the bible?