I think this is the way it should be.
I wish it was this way in my old church.
First your church, depending on what church it is is ruled by what ever it says it is ruled by. Churches have a legal existence. They are much like corporations in most states. Although the US Constitutions says there shall be no law respecting religion most states do indeed do just that. There are state laws that govern what a church is and isn't. This is not all bad though rarely enforced it is to protect people from the many fakes who preach for gain.
In most states there is a governing board of a church. That board makes all the decisions, ALL. The pastor may make decisions but only with approval of a governing body. They can fire him. Now in most churches where there is a denomination involved then you in order to be a part of that denomination must also follow their rules, so now we have state law and the board of the denomination that must be followed. In most churches there is also a local board of Elders, Deacons or some other group that consists of people who have signed on to the debt of the church. When a building is built the bank doesn't loan money to a church without people with means signing on to the dotted line.
Now having said all this let me throw a monkey wrench into the gears. When Christ left the earth he left the Apostles in charge of the church and made Peter the chief Apostle. Any questions that could not be answered adequately locally went to the Apostles. If the local Apostle could not answer it, then it went to Peter.
The Universal or Catholic church eventually divided up into different sects. For a long time there were only a few of them and the largest was the Church of Rome or what we today call the Roman Catholic Church. All this about the history is a paraphrasing of it, it isn't important how exact that all happened what is important is that the rule of The Chruch does not come from the people, at least it is not supposed to come from the people, certainly it has not always been so.
When Martin Luther took people away from the mother church he made many doctrinal changes and management changes to his church as compared to the Roman Church that he broke away from and that has been the way it has been done ever since in most of Christianity.
People will argue that Martin Luther's methodology is ok if the Holy Bible is used for direction and if that direction comes under inspiration of the Holy Ghost. There are literally thousands of denominations that claim to be Christian and use the Holy Ghost and the Holy Bible for leadership yet they all say different things. Many have some doctrines in common but differ on more than they agree.
When people leave a church either they are wrong in leaving the inspiration led pastor or the pastor was a fake, an impostor, a wannabe or something. There aren't other possibilities. Yes you can say the Pastor was a fallen prophet I guess but grasping at straws won't help your salvation.
People read the Bible and think they want to be a shepherd. How many times have I heard a pastor say he felt led by the Holy Ghost to be a pastor. Just what the heck does that mean. The fact is that we don't choose it is God that chooses. Even Christ did not decide to be a priest, He was called by God to the priesthood. (5th chapter of Hebrews) Aaron who was the father of the priesthood in Judaism as a High Priest and his sons after him did not decide this himself but was told by Moses he would have that office after God told Moses to call him to it.
I think today we take much too lightly the calling of Priest, Pastor, Minister, Shepherd, Deacon, Elder, Bishop or whatever compared to the way Christ did it and to the way it is done today in the Catholic Church.
We have lost it somehow through the ages. I will be very interested when I find a church that says that boldly says “God said” this or that and “God said I was to hold the priesthood and ordained me.” When these things happen I will be very interested indeed.
I have not said that the Catholics have it but I think they or perhaps even the Mormons are closest to it. They both make similar claims. Actually the Eastern Orthodox and Coptic churchs all make similar claims and have similar organizations.
Until God again appears and leads His Church you might as well worship the way you see fit because it won't make any difference until God authorizes again His Church on the earth. His Church will be “One” church.
I love The Lord, I anticipate gladly His 2nd coming. If I die today and bathe His feet with my tears of embarrassment and thankfulness I will know no better then that what I know now. The glass we look through dimly in our old age gets clearer and clearer.