That is also a good analogy. Eru is the one god in ME. The other Valar are greater servants who also lent their voices to the song of creation (hence why Morgoths perversions cannot be wholly undone) and the Maiar are basically their servants. Sauron was Maiar and a disciple of Aule before being corrupted by Morgoth if I recall. One thing that is unique about ME religion is that the Valar a& Maiar are basically forbidden from bending the peoples to their will. So, there is a lack of formal hierarchy in religion; it tends to be informal, and personal in nature, and only public in celebrations etc.
You also have to consider that there is a separation in the "civilization" of ME. From Erebor west is considered to be the homelands of the "enlightened" people; who know of the true nature of the Valar. The East (which is enormous) is considered un-enlightened and would likely have all sorts of cults and locale spirits active. Some would be instruments of Sauron, but many would be people naturally turning to worship based on their culture (weather, harvest, totems etc.)- these religions would actually be worshipping the Valar through locale spirits (Maiar). The Valar were tasked with the stewardship of ME and sent many Maiar as agents aside from the Istari.
All this to say- there is a lot of room for creative license without worrying about disturbing the core material of ME too much. The big thing is to observe that the Valar cannot grant power to destroy or create as those two aspects defy the song of creation. So, based on my recollection of the Paladin lists you'd probably be OK with most of them as augment the paladin them self. However, you'd likely be unable to use the attack spells on anything born of the song of creation (men, elves, animals, etc) but only on things corrupted by Morgoth or his servants (Orcs, Wargs, etc).