Mormon Dilemma 705

Church Government

Ensign, July 1972, “We are Called of God”; “…The Twelve are accountable to the prophet, and not the Church, for the course they pursue…If we are to take that same principle and apply it at the ward level, we can see that the bishop, who is considered the father of his ward and who leads his ward with judiciousness and love and patience and kindness, is nonetheless not answerable to the members of his ward, but instead is answerable to the Lord and to those priesthood leaders who preside over him. The bishop is answerable for the members of his ward but not necessarily answerable to the members of his ward.

The church of Jesus Christ, then, is organized from the top down.” – Loren C. Dunn, First Council of the Seventy

1 Corinthians 11:3; “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.”

This system that the Mormon Church has set up is wrong – from the top down and vice versa!

Churches aren’t run like pyramid schemes. The government of each congregation is run by its members. Each congregation is made up of different parts; elders, deacons, deaconesses, et al.

The local church as a unit has authority to elect deacons (Acts 6:3-5), send out missionaries (Acts 11:22, 2 Corinthians 8:19), settle doctrinal disputes together with other elders (1 Cor 15:2, 3, 22), administer church discipline (1 Cor 5:5, 2 Cor 2:6-7), tithes to the poor (Phil 4:15), etc.

God set up churches to function on their own (1 Cor 1:7) whether that congregation belongs to a large denomination or they run independently is irrelevant in how each congregation operates.