leadership injustices part 2

thanks to the comments left on my first post, i have done more thinking about this. in my first post, i think i was too direct in speaking out against one person, that may have been wrong of me to do. what i really wanted to address, and hopefully i will do a better job of it, is the problems inherent in the current church leadership structure that is in place in most evangelical churches. its the fact that these pastor-lead hierarchies seem to be the common place that gets my blood up. when the church first started, in no way was it intended that one person would have sole leadership responsibility. if the first-century church would have been run like it is most places today, there would not have been the Council at Jerusalem, a group of apostles and elders that, seemingly from Acts 15, was a governing body of the church and was instrumental in making the decisions. if it were like today, Peter would have been the Executive Pastor of the Church and would have been the sole decision maker... after all, he had God's leadership call on his life, right?
as far as leadership structures go, i tend to not like them, i admit that. but as i read in Acts about the Council, i think that type of decentralized leadership would be pretty refreshing. a group of people, appointed by the church, to oversee how the church is run and to make major decisions that come their way. as Troy shared in his comment on the last post, there are certain denominations and individual churches that do have a structure like that, one in particular is John Piper's church, he is only one vote among a group of elders.
i have another question i want to pose, based on my re-reading of Ephesians 4:11-13..... and i have some ideas on this subject, but i want to hear from the rest of you. the question is this: do we, as a Church, put way too much emphasis/importance on the 'Pastor' role, as far as the make-up of the church, than was originally intended?
sub-question: what happened to the incredibly important role of the Apostle or Prophet?

on a much happier note....

here is the video for Rufus Wainwright's new single 'Going to a Town'. the CD comes out the 15th, i cannot wait for it.....

leadership injustices

its been a long damn time since i've posted here... i'm regretful of that, to be sure, but not having a computer is making it a bit hard. anywho...

so, it is utter and complete frustration that has led me to break the blogging silence. what could have me so utterly and completely frustrated? two words: un-checked leadership.... especially leadership in the church. a friend of mine is on staff at a church in the town where he lives and is having huge trouble with the pastor of the church. he has been very careful not to share delicate and private things with me, which i admire, but the things he has shared with me has got my blood up. stories of power abuses, of trumping decisions at the very last minute because the pastor 'isn't comfortable' with some element of the service (even though people had planned and prepared for them), of exhibiting Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde-like personalities (he likens it unto a drunk husband: you never know which person you are going to get and when they hurt you, they may apologize about it later, but you know it will happen again) and it has happened again and again, not just with my friend, but with other people on staff there.

i almost didn't write this post because i wanted to try and formulate my ideas and frustrations before writing, but i decided i needed to get some of this stuff outta my head and at least start a conversation about it. i see and hear about all these injustices happening and i nearly go crazy because either no one knows about it or they do know about it, but don't have any idea what to do about it (unfortunately, i am a member of this group). to see abuses of power like this in a church makes my stomach sick. how the hell could these people get away with treating people the way they do. and then to get up in front of a congregation on sunday mornings, with their plastered smile in place, and pontificate about how we need to love people and love God. can anyone else see the disconnect there?

so, is there anything we can do? i have no interest in sitting back and watching things like this happen. i don't want to see this happening anymore, no matter where it should happen. please help me.....