[ColdSteelTalon]

I don't interpret the passage that way.

For me I tend not to interpret when it come to rules specifically. I read it for strictly what it says. The exceptions being parable or prophecy which uses a lot of metaphor and allegory.

It is true that Paul did remain with a Church. He was an evangelist and was responsible for starting a Church. But he by the power of the Holy Spirit laid down the rules for permanent Church leadership.

I think the safest policy is to try and live by the rules as closely as possible that way you are safe.

[SeekAndFind]

I read it for strictly what it says.

We should not read it in a literal wooden sense. Many church fathers who were also Bishops were single. These were people who were there just a mere decades after Christ. If they did not read the passage literally as "MUST BE MARRIED OR ELSE DISQUALIFIED" and understood it as "MAY BE MARRIED BUT IF SO, MUST BE MONOGAMOUS", then I believe we have good precedence for understanding it to be so.

Even if St. Paul was an evangelist, he still did pastoral work and if he laid down the rules for church leadership, he would not have excluded himself.