So this is an area of thought I had before even before I fully took the apostate plunge. I started noticing that almost everything about the congregation pointed back to Paul.
"Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together." Not Jesus' words.
"I do not permit a woman to teach." Did Jesus say that?
Qualifications for elder and servants (and thus the need for an organization): all from Paul.
In fact, while the last study Watchtower mentioned the importance of the Apostles in forming the congregations, very, very little of their influence is seen in the Bible, or history for that matter. But here comes Paul, fresh from being a rule-loving Pharisee to straighten everyone out and get things organized, and from him come basically all the rules and minutiae of organized religion that divide would-be brothers and sisters from each other and have been fought over for 2000 years. The winners get to write history, after all, and Paul's version of Christianity won out. All from the letters of one man, one who was not a chosen apostle. He hadn't even seen Jesus until his self-reported encounter that those with him couldn't see (convenient). The only collaborator of Paul's conversion is Ananias, who Paul says has "a good report with all the Jews." Hmm. Doesn't seem too much of a stretch that he'd help out a man taught by the well-respected Gamaliel.
At this point, some conspiracy theorists would say Saul/Paul was an infiltrator, even the first apostate who drew the infant Christian congregation away from the apostles and Christ's true message. Maybe. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and just say he was a strong personality who was used to rules and ceremony, and in his zealous imperfection set about organizing the congregations, contrary, perhaps, to Jesus' intent.
This theory crystalized even more for me when I read JWFacts' excellent essay on "organizations," which in turn makes more sense if you consider that Paul, the chief organizer, was misguided in his efforts.
I better stop there before I get a reputation for crazy ranting. I was actually surprised, once I started researching religions, that Paul doesn't get critically viewed as much as I thought he would/should. I'm still trying to figure him out; I'd like to hear what others think.