Through their local congregations, members have the opportunity to participate in the election of officers at all levels and in the formulation of church policy. Centralized authority . Whereas secular society has found a separation of legislative, executive, and judicial powers essential to responsible government, the hierarchical system combines these powers in one group of persons at each level of the hierarchy. Those who formulate policy are the ones who administer it and who sit in judgment over their own conduct when questions regarding it arise. Divine right .
Some leaders suffer from a messianic complex.
Thinking they have a divine mandate to lead the church in a particular direction, they turn a deaf ear to any counsel that would divert them from their predetermined course. By 1901 the church model Seventh-day Adventists had adopted nearly 40 years earlier, in 1863, had become obsolete as the result of changes that had taken place. The major restructuring of 1901 has served the church well throughout the 20th century. However, other vast changes that have taken place since then, both in the church and in the world, point to the need for another major restructuring to prepare it for the 21st century. Or, we might add, the church.