It's because the theology and doctrine has now been changed by everyone to be aligned with organisations. I'm saying Jesus foresaw the risk. I also think Presbyterians (in England at any rate) are far different from you than you think. I'm not averse to hearing from Lutherans if you have the inside track to their disciplinary system ;-) They didn't answer me as they were preoccupieed.
Without trying to be combative--I'm really not--how does one organize people around a central set of ideas and way of life without it being an organization? That is, how can a functional community exist apart from organization--ways which organize things.
To put it another way, when Jesus says, "I will build My Church", how is that
not establishing, instituting, and organizing something?
I get that living in the 21st century we're all a bit suspicious of organizations and institutions, especially "organized religion". We've all seen the ways in which organized religion--the way that systems can be abused and misused to hurt people. And given the ways in which western ethical philosophy has largely been shaped within the last several centuries, we are all very accustomed to a high, or even hyper, form of individualism. A kind of individualism that asserts the central importance of the self, and one's own autonomy (even, at times, at the expense of others).
I am not stranger to being critical of the ways in which religious institutions and structures have been used for evil. I've experienced toxic and abusive forms of religion first hand, even from a very young age. And as a student of Church history I'm aware of just how terrible such abuses have been historically.
As a Lutheran it was religious abuse that functioned as a major catalyst for Luther's reforming movement. And, at the same time, Lutherans have often themselves been complicit in the misuse of religion.
What I don't think, however, is that we can fix any those problems by getting rid of religious organization. Jesus, clearly intended His followers to be in this thing He was doing together. He didn't say "there shall be no leaders among you", but rather teaches that leading is not to act as a bully and treat others as servants, but to be the servant of others, so that the first shall be last, the least shall be called greatest in the kingdom. Christ organizes His Church, ground up, on the basis of service and love, the self-giving of Himself on the cross.
When the Church strays, reform is the way forward; not revolution. Jesus already started the revolution, we keep that fire burning. But because we are, as Scripture says, like sheep who wander, there is a shepherding for us that calls and keeps us together. And that is why it is important that we meet, and hear God's word, and meet together at Jesus' Table over which He Himself presides and gives Himself as food and drink.
He gives Himself as food and drink at His Table, so that "the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not communion of the body of Christ?" and further, "even as the loaf is one, we, though many, are one body for we partake of the one loaf".
Jesus is here, for us, giving Himself to us and presiding over us as the Head of the Body, the Shepherd over the flock. But that only makes sense with the Church as a body, organized with members, united together with common faith, and hearing His word which He speaks to us, and gathered at His Table.
-CryptoLutheran
