Very insightful and instructive piece, Dan. At the end of the day, pastors are human with natural needs and natural powers. Parishioners, I have found out in my more than six decades as a Believer instinctively view and interact with pastors as people not with supernatural powers but with extra-natural gifts and maybe even power.

This is a challenge not only for the church in the West, but in other parts of the world including Africa, the continent that will experience the greatest growth in Christianity in this century.

Thanks for bringing this to light and for your last paragraph and the advice in your last sentence.