i got to thinking the other day after speaking with a man who was a pasotr in a town about 65 miles outside of las vegas. he was "the pastor" of the church, and lived in las vegas. he said that he would travel to the town on weekends, but he like living in vegas. here's the problem i am having with all this - i think if you are pastoring a church you need to live in the community the church is located - for me, it's a given. when we were living in chicago we live across the street from "the lasalle street church" (a "large" church located on lasalle between "moody church" and "moody bible school"). the church was all right, but the pastoral staff did not live in the area - many lived in the suburbs a good hour or two away. how can one minister to a people, if you don't live with the people? if we were to send a person to mexico, we would expect them to live in the town they were ministering too - why do we have a different expectation with our pastors here? i will admit i am still processing all this, and i would love to know what others think - as a postmodern people (pastors) should we live with the people we minister too? your ideas would be greatly welcomed.