[Corin Stormhands]

We have nine pastors, each with a different gift/calling. A couple deal specifically with the business aspects of the church. They are not the senior pastors.

On the rare occasions when we see all nine pastors on the platform at once, I am amazed at the picture of completeness in ministry and how their gifts compliment each other.

[jude24]

I see the same thing at my church.

There's two pastors, each with different temperments and strengths. The session of elders, too, fill in the pastor's holes.

[blue-duncan]

I get a sense of nostalgia in the article, a longing for something in the writer's past for a small group with a "shepherd" who can manage and personally care for the flock. The problem with that, I see, is he would not accept the small group model for shepherding. I don't get the sense he really buys into the gifts given to the members of the church along with the offices. His use of Paul as an example of a "hands on" shepherd, I think, is misplaced. Paul prayed for the churches but when he was present and in his letters, he is constantly reminding and exhorting leaders to raise up new leaders who would be able to raise up new leaders who could do the work of the ministry. Even the disciples in the early church appointed Spirit-filled people to do the hands on ministry so they could spend their time in study, prayer and teaching. Neither Paul nor the disciples spent themselves doing everything in the church. Their goal was "to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry." But the traditional church model fights that principle.