Who is the Church?

Is the church the people in the church or is the church the pastor?

Calvary Chapel crassly says that the church is the Senior pastor. The people, in essence, are irrelevant to the discussion of what constitutes church. Well not completely irrelevant. They are supposed to pay the bills, but it's still the Senior pastor who makes up the church.

In Calvary Chapel, the Senior pastor is Moses, to whom God said that he would destroy the people and make a great nation out of just the one man (a threat which God did not go through with). In such a system you don't need the entire body, you just need the pastor.

In Calvary Chapel, the Senior pastor is the spiritual person and the pew warmers are not spiritual. The law makes you have church boards but you are free to fire them at the first sign of disagreement.

In Calvary Chapel, there is no denominational structure, just regional pastors (like Bishops) and a head (like the Pope).