while i do not agree with a papacy

while i do not agree with a papacy per se, i also believe in structure inside the church. i myself have been fired for emotional reasons and later came to realize that i was hired for the same reasons. i like what acts 6 says about choosing leaders. the whole group gets involved. then the apostles prayed, then consecrated them. i suppose that if the group were wrong, the apostles would have got a "veto" in their spirit. maybe if we chose leaders like this today, there would be less and less pastor-cult churches. i like your view darlene. emotional obligation can be such a "pull". stuck in the middle of tax talk and submission to authority in romans 13 is a phrase: "owe no man anything but the debt of love". i like this phrase so much as it has helped me personally with issues of quid-pro-quo in my life. i no longer believe in that pass-time. i believe that if we do, we do freely... and when we love? love fully and freely without any "strings" whether if it is to a congregation or to a spouse.