another facet of the faith was the structure of the church. it was common – as it is today – for a church to have a leader. ignatius wrote several letters to several churches instructing them to let the leaders (usually the bishops) handle all the problems within the church. he exhorted church members to listen to the bishops as they were the leaders: "be subject to the bishop as to the commandment…we are clearly obligated to look upon the bishop as the lord himself ... you should do nothing apart from the bishop." the role of the bishop paved the way for hierarchies in churches that we often see today.