There seems to be sometimes a pattern in the way God moves historically. There’s (1) a central human power that (2) gets decentralized to other leaders, and then (3) people realign with Jesus. Like this classic example:

1. By the 16th century, the Catholic Church faced widespread accusations of corruption. Positions within the Church, including high offices, could be bought, and the pope held ultimate authority. The Church operated with a strict hierarchical structure, with decisions being made centrally.
2. The Protestant Reformation challenged the authority of the pope, advocating instead for the Bible’s teachings as the ultimate authority. But Reformers created their own leadership structures and often maintained partnerships with governments. Practices such as infant baptism were retained, which sometimes served to register individuals for purposes like taxation.
3. The Radical Reformation (Anabaptists) viewed themselves as primarily citizens of the kingdom of God, not of earthly governments. They maintained that institutionalized church organizations had no biblical authority. They sought to follow Jesus and his teachings as their way of life.

Maybe this also happened a few thousand years ago:

1. The temple until it’s destruction in 586 BC (centralized leadership)
2. Synagogues as the primary Jewish institution (decentralized leaders)
3. The church forming after Jesus’ resurrection (Holy Spirit led)

I see it in our mission fields:

1. A gifted local leader proclaims the gospel and leads lots of people to Christ, starting many churches, but ends up in charge of everything
2. The leader gets proud or afraid or whatever, and does things that make us stop working with them, so the network decentralizes to the pastors
3. Out of the mess, ordinary people rise up and multiply disciples, without titles or instructions or supervision, just listening to the Holy Spirit

I wonder it’s necessary to first get the power out of one person’s hands before people can respond to Jesus? Or more specifically:

• When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder. – Luke 11:21-22
• For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. – Eph 6:12

I also wonder how often we stop at reformation instead of radical reformation, choosing to repeat the mistakes of the people we opposed and leaving ourselves vulnerable to be used by the enemy, instead of fully submitting ourselves to Jesus as King. (See https://osozero.com/2023/11/14/religious-rebellious-or-radical/)