Where two or three are gathered together, you have an institution. All institutions, according to sociologist Robert Merton, tend to be degenerative. The spiritual masters are unanimous that religious institutionalism is inimical to a well-developed spirituality. We are either a religious functionary, or 'spiritual' person. Because institutions are about power, control and conformity.
Spirituality is about creativity and powerlessness.
Institutional religion tends to innoculate people - giving them just enough 'religion' so they'll have no desire for the real thing. Being a religious person and a spiritual person is not the same. A religious person may have the right words, but there is no reality. Moral power means being free of the world's institutional titles, adulations, rewards or punishments. Pilate said to Jesus 'I have power'.