Just imagine what it would have been like if Paul had had e-mail and instant messaging. Half of the New Testament would have been flying around the Ethernet and Paul wouldn't have had to admonish (yell at) his newly founded churches. Corinth would not have had all the problems it obviously faced, and we would not have had the letters we find so helpful (at times).
But look at what Paul did: he founded a church, stayed there a while to teach them what to do, then left. From time to time he wrote them as an overseer, but pretty much they were on their own. He entrusted the Gospel and the Sacraments to them and trusted them to be able to do well.
Paul never stayed more than two years with a church before moving on to another place. He went all around Asia Minor, Greece, and the north side of the Mediterranean starting churches. Quite a lifetime of work. But he didn't just start churches and leave. He wrote them letters to try to keep them on the right track (according to his theology). From these letters we can understand his theology and some of the problems that beset the young churches.
Paul's moving around gives us the concept of the circuit rider priest, but his praxis is more than that. He trained leaders in different roles. Preaching is not something just anyone can do; you need training in public speaking and rhetoric. Getting up in front of people and proclaiming the words of the Eucharistic prayer takes a special sort of person: one who was revered by the community and could speak in public. Teachers and givers and hospitality were all special people with special gifts. It was these gifts that Paul looked for in the community AND FOUND. The Holy Spirit put into each community the gifts that were needed for that community's life. Paul just had to find them and then train them.
In Paul's theology, the first thing that pops into everyone's head is the image of the Body of Christ. Paul works out his theology of the Body of Christ in three different places: Romans 12:4-5, 1 Corinthians 12:12-26, and Ephesians 4:4-6. 1 Corinthians has the longest discussion so we will concentrate on that passage.
In the 19th and 20th centuries our metaphors tended to be mechanical. In the 21st century we are moving back to the original Pauline idea of an organic body. If part of a machine breaks down, we replace it. If part of the body breaks down, the whole body works to heal it. All parts of the body are important, even if we don't notice them or think highly of them. Toes are terribly important for balance, even if we don't think about them until we get an ingrown toenail. Livers do not do the same work as the lungs. But all are necessary. (Fat cells are probably not necessary, unless they are being burned for energy). The scriptural concept of the Body of Christ enhances our concept of community: when one part of the community is hurting, acutely or chronically, then the whole Body hurts. Community is addressed further in the discussion of reason.
Who is the head of the Body of Christ? We all know the right answer but then we act as if the answer were different. Christ is the head of the Body of Christ, which is the Church, the people gathered. Christ is the head. Not the priest. It is not "the priest's church". We are all members of the body, working together in a very organic way to help make God's will done on earth. If Christ is not the brain and the will acting through the body, then what are we doing?
In each case when Paul talks about the Body of Christ, he combines it with a discussion of gifts. Spiritual gifts are necessary for the Body of Christ. And in each place, God has placed the gifts necessary for that community's life and work. These lists of gifts (Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 27-30, Ephesians 4:11-13) are not all inclusive and change from place to place and generation to generation. As noted above, Paul found all the gifts necessary for the life of a congregation in that congregation. They didn't need him to stay around indefinitely, nor did they expect him to do so. His gift was church planting. Their gifts enabled them to be the Body of Christ in the place and time where he had planted a church.
Probably a generation after Paul, 2 Timothy 2:2 tells Timothy "what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well". This is part of the Total Ministry model: finding the elders in the community and teaching them to teach others. Moving from the model of a congregation led by a full time seminary-trained priest who "does it all" to a Total Ministry congregation does not involve replacing a single person (the priest) with a committee (the ministry team). The ministry team is not responsible for "doing it all" instead of or along with the priest. They are called to identify persons with ministries within the Body of Christ gathered in that time and place and enable them to fulfill those ministries for the good of the community.
1 Peter 2:4-10 Living stones
Naturally we note that Jesus Himself practiced Total Ministry, even though we are never sure what the gifts the individual disciples had were. But they certainly were a community trained by Christ Himself and sent out after Pentecost. After the coming of the Spirit they were empowered to use the gifts Jesus had taught and trained them in.
It is good to know that Jesus' students also didn't "get it" all the time. Phillip at the end of Jesus' ministry asks Jesus to show them the Father. "Have you been with me all this time and you still don't understand?!?" asks the exasperated teacher (John 14:8-9). We don't have to "get it" even after three years. The disciples had Jesus himself and didn't get it.