Pilgrim, Kyle, Paul S, and John C,

Thanks for your posts, which reinforce my thinking that some people "just don't get it" re this issue--but the four of you certainly do. As you point out, how can a minister serve his flock as the Apostle Paul did without knowing them?

John pointed out that there could be a megachurch vs. small church aspect to this, which Paul S also addressed--and I had not thought about it quite from that standpoint. (The only megachurch I have some familiarity with is a Presbyterian one which has assistant pastors as well as ruling elders and deacons to which a family is assigned for their care.) If a megachurch does not do something like that I could well see this being a problem with them.

I am wondering if there is a denominational divide where the more sacramentally-oriented a church is (and thus the view might be that the chief role of a minister is to offer the sacraments), the greater the possibility might be that ministers might not feel that they have to know the people. If one's chief role is to offer the sacraments, does one have to know the worshippers in order to do that? So I begin to think that the likelihood of this view is greater in Roman Catholic churches and that in Anglican churches it would be more likely in less evangelical churches. Conversely, I would expect the opposite view (that you and I hold) to be more common in Reformed and other evangelical churches.

My personal view, frankly, is that if a man does NOT have the spiritual gifts needed to reach out to his congregants in love, he should not be in the ministry.

Theo