After the period of vision, planting, and fruit-bearing comes the period of consolidation, structure, and maintenance. This can easily degenerate into stagnation. The biblical pattern for churches seems to be that the church as a spiritual building should constantly grow out of the church as spiritual body. In other words, relationship should be the point of reference out of which structure flows. To begin church-planting with a structured church risks putting the church already on the downward slope of the organizational cycle.
Structure can affect attitude toward people.
In highly structured churches, people become necessary for programs, or even for the continued existence of the institution. Institutional churches find it hard to remain culturally relevant. The traditional church died in England, the most Christian country in the world at one time. The United States faces the same problem, but with a different twist. In the United States a large number of traditional churches are closing each year, while at the same time new, less structured churches are springing up.