Church and individuals

Mark Porthouse is concerned about the way we anthropomorphise the Church and wonders whether this is partly responsible for the negative impacts of institutionalism. He calls; "Let’s stop palming off our individual responsibilities on the church, let’s stop trying to control each other through the structure that church has become. Let’s look to the fundamental property of church, that it is a network of individuals,"
I replied.
It is arguable [and I do support this position] that the 'angels of the churches' in Revelation 1-3 are the churches themselves being addressed as spiritual entities answerable to God. Combine this with seeing principalities and powers as human institutions that have developed their own dynamics and identitites and add a dash of conceptualisation drawn from scientific theories about emergence and there is plenty of reason to think that we do right to conceive of 'corporations' as self- motivated entities with some degree of awareness and instrumentality.

That's not to say that the issues around people taking proper responsibility for themselves are not of concern. The principalities dimension to understanding organisations [intsititutions] alerts us to the way that they have the potential to co-opt human beings into projects that are bigger and sometimes to the detriment of human and creation's wellbeing. Paul's language about not allowing the Powers to shape our thinking or to step into mediation between us and God is just on the button for concerns about the negative effects of institutions and corporate bodies, I think.
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