Ephesians 4:11 is clear that God has given us teachers to equip us. The broad evangelical mindset that "it's just me and my bible" is, ironically, unbiblical (remember, too, that the average believer probably didn't have his own copy of the whole bible until invention of the printing press). While I agree that it's important to read the scriptures on your own, I believe that it's just as important to make liberal use of God's clearly appointed means of instruction - the men to whom the gift of teaching has been given. God has not given us teachers so that we can piously refuse them for the "more intimate/spiritual/whatever/blah blah blah" approach of wholly personalized doctrinal education.

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Davidius
Husband of Emilia
Member: First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham (RPCNA) - Durham, NC
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German Literature and Classics

This may explain the old adage about Baptists being Methodists with shoes, and Presbyterians being Baptists who can read. To round out the adage, Lutherans might qualify as Presbyterians who drink to excess, and Episcopalians as Lutherans who know when to say when. - D.G. Hart