Hey Laika
Yes, I agree, as I'm sure many who attend more moderate churches with less authoritarian hierarchies, are permitted to, and actually do hear directly, frequently and distinctly from God.
Sometimes even despite contradictions from those that presume to speak for God.
However, due to our fallen state, giving prominence and authority to a central body or person is fraught with danger. This is where the arsenic often gets into the honey.
It is no accident that so many (who should be soldiers or warriors for the gospel of grace) are lulled into spiritual passivity and mediocrity - in what some describe as the "greatest indoor spectator sport in the world"...
It is religion's fault that in more than 40 years of door knocking, in Christian countries and communities, not a single person ever shared any part of the gospel, in any way, with me at their door. (Not that the gospel is exclusive to Christians).
All it took in the end was a dead easy and ridiculously simple question: "Please Fernando, could you explain to us what is the gospel, in one word?" The rest as they say is history (including the Watchtower organisation's hold on our family).