If the Pope leads the Catholic Church ...

[special]

Who leads the Evangelicals or Protestants, other branches of the Church?

[Lemon Drop]

Each protestant denomination in the US has its own leadership structure. But in all cases the person is elected to serve a set term or retire at a certain age, they are not leaders for life like the Pope.

In the UK, the Church of England is headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Episcopal Church in the US has a Presiding Bishop who serves a nine year term. Women and openly gay clergy can serve in this role, not just men.

Southern Baptists have a president who serves more of a CEO type role. Has always been a man.

Etc.

[special]

So it is country specific, there is no world-wide leader like in the Catholic church? Thanks

[TheCaber]

Look up "Martin Luther" on wikipedia and other history sites.
He was the founder of Protestantism. The first of many protestant sects. King Henry the Eighth split away from the (Roman) Catholic Church and established the Church of England, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

A confusing array of different religious beliefs and practices soon followed all broadly proclaiming the sole truth of the gospel of Christ (the self called "Christians"). Anybody can declare themselves the head of a christian sect and enjoy the tax benefits (separation of church and state).

The Roman Catholic Church is the only one that can trace back to the founding by Jesus Christ and his disciples.

There have been many other splits and historic traditions.

My head hurts and my heart aches. Requiescat In Pacem, Francis Papa.

[Acer]

The other extreme is independent and/or non-denominational protestant churches, who may share theological underpinnings with other churches, but whose leadership is entirely local. Usually a board, often called "elders." Sometimes the head pastor is the defacto leader if not technically so. A lot of high-profile mega-churches operate essentially under the authority of the head pastor.

Then you have "The priesthood of all believers, a Christian doctrine stating that all Christians share in the priestly status of Christ, meaning they have direct access to God and can interpret Scripture without needing a human mediator."

[Grateful11]

OT: On the local side usually one local family or a group of locals basically decide everything for local churches. At least that's the way it is with every church I've been involved with. The last fiasco at the church where we're members is the reason we're no longer active there. We give them just enough money to stay in good standing but that's about it. We had an awesome pastor that was bringing in new people and younger families he simply wanted to introduce some new music into the hymn rotation. Oh that didn't go over to well with the powers that be. They ganged up on him and forced him out over that, fear of any type of change. I got this from a member of the church council so I know it to be true. I had only met one other pastor in my lifetime that could get the word across like he did. He didn't preach from the Bible so to speak and you didn't fall asleep on him.

[special]

Anybody can declare themselves the head of a christian sect and enjoy the tax benefits (separation of church and state).

How can I take advantage of this loophole?

[Michael]

special wrote:
Anybody can declare themselves the head of a christian sect and enjoy the tax benefits (separation of church and state).

How can I take advantage of this loophole?

Here you go. I signed up years ago because a friend might have needed a minister for a shotgun wedding. Turns out they found a real preacher so I've never used my status for anything.

I'm pretty sure my local Catholic priest wouldn't like that I signed up!

https://www.themonastery.org/contact

[kj]

We’ve discussed this on the other side, but Evangelical is more of a political term than a specific organization. There is no “head’ of Evangelicals. Many Evangelical churches are various Baptist churches, Assembly of God, or just “Non-denominational”, etc. etc. Tons of “Evangelical” churches are Baptist churches with mostly African-American membership, which is why you often see the qualifier White Evangelical. I think it basically refers to church goers that support Trump. With that definition, it’s not surprising most of them voted for Trump.

There is one Atheist who declared his house a “Church” and showed how the designation could be abused, and rumors then popped up that all the people having bible studies in their homes were doing the same to avoid taxes, and that has been debunked, as not even one example of this happening has been found. Well, other than the one Atheist.

[MikeF]

Hopefully, it's Jesus.